Manchester United are reportedly interested in signing Brazilian goalkeeper Mycael Pontes Moreira.
Andre Onana is the obvious number one at the club but with the futures of Altay Bayindir and Tom Heaton likely to be away from Old Trafford by next season, the Red Devils have begun to look at back up options.
As a consequence, the club have been monitoring different options and it emerged earlier this week that one player that they could have interest in is SSC Napoli keeper, Alex Meret.
Brazilian outlet globo.com report that the Red Devils may have another name on their list to provide competition for Onana.
“Athletico Paranaense’s standout 20 year old goalkeeper Mycael, has already entered the radar of English teams, such as Manchester United, Leicester, Brentford and West Ham.”
“Athletico sees in Mycael the potential to surpass the value of Bento’s transfer to Al-Nassr, from Saudi Arabia”, a value which exceeded €18 million.
In spite of this, the Brazilian club are in no rush to sell the player as he has a contract until 2027. What’s more, they see him as the starting keeper for 2025 and have no hunger to enter the transfer window to find a suitable replacement.
Nonetheless, the report does provide a glint of positivity for United as it claims, a “departure now would only happen in the case of a great offer and a project from a team abroad.”
In spite of his tender age of 20 years, he has immense experience in national team youth football, playing almost 50 times for various youth sides, including receiving a call up for the Olympics.
Mycael has really broken through this season, playing 20 games in total and conceding just 23 times, while keeping seven clean sheets in the process.
The starlet has also been described as “very mature for his age, modern, confident, and an agile left-footed goalkeeper with good footwork. The perfect goalkeeper for a team looking to build from the back.”
With new coach Ruben Amorim aiming to target modern defenders who are comfortable on the ball, it only makes sense any new goalkeeping recruits could match Onana’s ability in that area.
United have recently shown interest in fellow South American Franco Mastantuono, as new owners Ineos have the intention to expand their scouting networks to South America.
What’s more, Ineos have proven in the past with the transfers of Leny Yoro and Chido Obi-Martin that they are prepared to make aggressive moves for youngsters when they feel they can take the club to the next level.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
