David Tully Sep 11th 2025
Man United did make a concerted effort to sign Lyon winger Malick Fofana in the “last two days of the transfer window”, according to reports in France.
Foot Mercato claim that the sale of Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea, and the injury sustained by Matheus Cunha against Burnley, instigated the Red Devils’ move for Fofana.
The Belgian international had already been the subject of interest from the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton and Nottingham Forest over the course of the summer.
However, United were the team pushing the hardest to snap up Fofana prior to the transfer deadline on September 1st.
Why didn’t Fofana move to Old Trafford?
It appears that getting the approval of the player was the main obstacle. Foot Mercato report that super agent Jorge Mendes acted as an “intermediary” between the Red Devils and Fofana’s father.
However, there was “no signal” from Fofana that he was open to joining United, so formal talks with Lyon never occurred.
It has been reported elsewhere that the Ligue One side were demanding around €60m (£52m) for the 20-year-old so there is no guarantee that an agreement on the transfer fee would have been reached anyway.
Man United do need more depth on the flanks
The likes of Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Antony have all left the club either on loan or on permanent deals in recent weeks, so head coach Ruben Amorim isn’t exactly blessed with a lot of options out wide.
It is, therefore, not a surprise that a move for Fofana was considered before the window closed. With doubts about Cunha and Mason Mount’s fitness heading into the Manchester derby, there is a good chance that either Joshua Zirkzee or Bruno Fernandes will be asked to fill in up front.
Read more about the Manchester United First Team Squad for 2025/26 here
David Tully
David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World’s Football News Network.
