Eagle-eyed fans spot Man Utd new boy Ugarte in World Cup winner’s Football Manager team FOUR YEARS before transfer
ANTOINE GRIEZMANN had Manchester United new boy Manuel Ugarte in his Football Manager team FOUR YEARS AGO.
Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Ugarte, 23, is poised to seal a £51million move to Old Trafford before the transfer window closes on Friday.
But the Uruguayan had been on World Cup winner Griezmann‘s radar long before Man Utd declared an interest.
Eagle-eyed fans have analysed a re-surfaced Instagram photo from 2020 when the Atletico Madrid playmaker shared his Marseille side on Football Manager.
Included in his starting line-up was Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate – who both now play for Liverpool.
PSG’s Gianluigi Donarumma was his keeper, with Barcelona’s Pedri in midfield.
And Joshua Zirkzee, signed by Man Utd from Bologna earlier this summer, led the line.
Meanwhile, on the bench was incoming Red Devils star Ugarte.
He was accompanied by fellow substitutes such as N’Golo Kante, Houssem Aouar, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Troy Parrott.
In 2020, Ugarte had caught the attention of football fans when he impressed for Uruguay in South America’s Olympic qualification tournament.
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The midfielder had previously made history in his country by becoming Uruguay‘s youngest ever player at the age of 15 years and 233 days old.
He played 37 games for PSG, failing to score but contributing three assists.
Ugarte starred for Uruguay in this summer’s Copa America and scored from the penalty spot in their quarter-final win over Brazil.
On Wednesday he arrived at Carrington ahead of his move to Man Utd.
The two clubs have agreed a deal for a £51m transfer of £42m plus an additional £8.5m in add-ons.
The stumbling block over a deal came down to the fee, with the French outfit demanding a fixed £51m for the 23-year-old – the same price they paid to buy him from Sporting Lisbon in 2023.
That had led to talk of a loan deal with an obligation to buy next summer.
But the imminent sale of Scott McTominay to Napoli in a £25m transfer is set to facilitate the move being a permanent one straight away.
Once the deal is formally completed, Ugarte will become the fifth senior signing at Old Trafford this summer.
He follows Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui in arriving to bolster Erik ten Hag‘s squad.
Manuel Ugarte the next Roy Keane
By Phil Thomas
NEARLY two decades have passed since Roy Keane led Manchester United into battle for the final time.
Fittingly enough, in a typically brutal showdown with bitter rivals Liverpool, Keane collected the 102nd yellow card of his Old Trafford career.
Two months later he was gone.
A fall-out with Sir Alex Ferguson ended in United’s greatest general of the Premier League era exiting for good.
It left a gap in the engine room that the Red Devils have never really come close to filling in the 19 years that have followed.
Many tried and some managed it in flashes and, although the trophies still rolled in for a time, there was no snarling, bring-it-on warrior prowling the midfield.
Until now… until the imminent capture of a man who views a 50-50 challenge like a starving Labrador staring at a side of ham.
For three months, United have licked their own lips at the prospect of a midfield marshalled by Uruguayan tough guy Manuel Ugarte.
Finally, it appears, they are getting their man.
A transfer deal rising to £50million is all but agreed with Paris Saint-Germain.
The signing of a player many believe will be the most crucial of the Erik ten Hag tenure is a whisker away from completion.
And, at long last, United will once again have a never-take-a-backward-step scrapper protecting their back line.
Of course at just 23, in only his fourth season in Europe, the South American is far from the finished article.
Ugarte is pretty much a ball-winner pure and simple.
Rarely will you see him pinging 40-yard passes to split a defence.
But ending his days with half the reputation of Keane and a fraction of his silverware would still mean a hell of a career.
And with just three goals in eight years as a professional, he will never be a box-to-box replica of their legendary Irishman’s early days.
But a midfield containing Ugarte — a natural replacement for the ageing Casemiro — alongside Kobbie Mainoo will certainly see an end to United being soft-centred rollovers.
This is the man who, on arriving at PSG from Sporting Lisbon a year ago, gave a telling glimpse into what French fans could expect.
There was more hitman than humour in his almost sinister response: “When we have the ball, it’s a game.
“When we don’t, it’s a fight.”
It was one he rarely lost in a stunning opening six months, too, soon becoming a cult figure with fans and a regular in the team.
The player Juan Ramon Carrasco, coach of his first club Fenix, once described as “having seven lungs and owning half the pitch” was living up to the hype.
Winning hearts and minds everywhere . . . apart from in the PSG manager’s office.
Boss Luis Enrique, more used to ballerinas than brute force from his Barcelona days, poured cold water on the potential by highlighting limitations and much room for improvement.
So much so, from the turn of the year, he was suddenly a bench player, although still managed to top the Ligue 1 tackling charts with 98 as PSG won the double.
Yet if Enrique had little faith, Marcelo Bielsa — now Uruguay’s national boss — lacked none.
He saw Ugarte as the pillar in his plans for this summer’s Copa America.
Already a hero back home for starring in January’s World Cup qualifying win in Argentina, he was a regular, and even hit the winner in a quarter-final shootout triumph over Brazil.
Confidence was restored but back in Paris the arrival of Joao Neves from Benfica pushed him further down the pecking order.
With the door to Old Trafford swinging wider, Ugarte — a 15-year-old schoolboy when he made his pro bow with Fenix — was determined to stroll through it.
A fifth summer signing for Ten Hag after Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui, albeit with less bells-and-whistles hype than some of them.
Definitely more piano carrier than piano player.
Then again, you need all kinds to make an orchestra . . . and in Ugarte, United may just have found their conductor.