Man Utd Close to £27.5m Deal for Atalanta Winger Amad Traore

Manchester United are expected to complete the transfer of Atalanta winger Amad Traore for a fee that could rise beyond £30m after various add-ons are triggered.

Traore is the youngest player in history to score on his Serie A debut after netting for Atalanta when he made his first-team bow last October aged 17 years and 109 days.

He was initially going to join Parma on loan, a path already travelled by former Atalanta winger Dejan Kulusevski, but Gianluca Di Marzio reports that Atalanta pulled out of that potential deal and ended talks with Parma in order to strike a permanent transfer with United.

The proposed deal to take Traore to Old Trafford instead will start at an initial fee of €30m (£27.5m) and rise further in the future depending on additional bonuses.

However, Di Marzio crucially adds that the 18-year-old will not link up with the United squad just yet as a result of a work permit issue. It means that while the deal is expected to be formally completed now, Traore won’t actually be moving to Manchester until January.

When United interest in Traore gathered pace last month it was explained that he was on the club’s radar regardless of any outcome in the Jadon Sancho saga. He is therefore not to be considered as an alternative to the England winger and would have been pursued anyway.

Traore is a goalscoring winger, having managed eight goals and 11 assists in 27 total appearances last season across youth and senior levels.

He is yet to play any minutes so far this season, but has been permanently promoted to Atalanta’s first-team squad and has at least been named on the bench for all three Serie A games so far.

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