Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag wants to make Matthijs de Ligt his first signing of the summer transfer window.
De Ligt is free to leave Bayern Munich after falling out of favour last season with the German side keen to raise funds from a sale and offload his salary from the wage bill. Bayern are closing in on the signing of Hiroki Ito from Stuttgart and remain in negotiations with Bayer Leverkusen over a deal for Jonathan Tah.
The arrival of that defensive duo will pave the way for De Ligt to leave and Ten Hag is eyeing a reunion with the Dutch defender at Old Trafford. De Ligt broke in the Ajax team during Ten Hag’s tenure with the Eredivisie side and was appointed captain while still a teenager.
He became the youngest player to appear in a European final, aged 17, after starting the Europa League defeat to Manchester United in 2016-17 and later captained Ajax to the Champions League semi-finals.
De Ligt became the first defender to win the Golden Boy in 2018 and joined Juventus in a €75m deal in 2019. After three seasons and one Serie A title in Turin, he signed for Bayern Munich in 2022 and won the Bundesliga title in his debut campaign with the club.
However, the 24-year-old made just 16 league starts last season and Bayern are prepared to offload the defender to raise funds for their rebuild under new head coach Vincent Kompany.
Manchester United are in the market for a centre-back this summer and Sky Germany are reporting the Red Devils are monitoring De Ligt’s situation closely. Raphael Varane’s exit and uncertainty over the futures of Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof have made the signing of a new central defender a priority at Old Trafford.
