Leny Yoro ‘threatened with no football’ by Lille if he rejected Man Utd for Real Madrid as ‘pressure’ told
Leny Yoro was reportedly ‘threatened with no football’ by Lille if he rejected a move to Manchester United this summer.
United are expected to announce the 18-year-old as a new member of their squad after they agreed a £52m deal with Lille for his transfer.
Yoro made the shock decision on Tuesday night despite having previously said he only had eyes for Real Madrid.
Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain pulled out of the race having heard of the mutual interest between Yoro and Madrid, but the La Liga giants were unwilling to stump up the fee Lille were asking for.
Madrid offered around £25m for the teenager and weren’t willing to go anywhere close to the fee United ended up paying, which ‘they considered disproportionate for a very promising but uncontrasting soccer player who had only one season of contract left’.
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That’s according to Spanish outlet Marca, who also reveal that ‘Real Madrid were confident, perhaps too much, in the face of what they gave as a highly probable signing’.
They had reached a verbal agreement with Yoro and ‘counted on his word that he would do what was necessary to facilitate an operation in the best possible conditions’.
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It’s claimed Madrid used ‘the same formula’ they used successfully to sign Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni, a ‘negotiation without haste’ in the knowledge (or false hope in this case) that the player would continue to push for the move.
The report claims the tactic didn’t work on this occasion because a) ‘Leny Yoro has been seduced by the powerful economic offer that United has put on the table in the form of a salary, much higher than that of Real Madrid’ and b) ‘he has not been able to withstand the very intense pressure exerted on him by Lille’.
It’s claimed Lille ‘even threatened the player with having a year without playing if he did not accept the English offer’. Perhaps not quite the transfer coup we thought it was.
