Manchester United Could Hijack Napoli, Arsenal’s $30M Target Defender: Report

Manchester United reportedly are planning to hijack Arsenal transfer target Gabriel Magalhaes in the ongoing summer market.

Magalhaes, who currently plays for Lille in Ligue 1, has been tipped to move to either Arsenal or Napoli after the French club’s president Gerard Lopez’s latest statement.

“I think it’s fair to say that Arsenal are a high interest to him, Napoli is a high interest to him. We’ve given him plenty of time to make up his mind. We’ve always said, ‘look if we have an agreement with two clubs or three clubs and the agreements are the same then we are not going to create a bidding competition’,” Lopez told sports website talkSPORT in a recent interview.

When Lopez was asked if Arsenal was the player’s first choice, the club president refused to answer that, as claimed in the same talkSPORT report.

Italian publication Gianluca Di Marzio has claimed Man Utd have jumped into the picture and are planning to snatch 22-year-old Magalhaes this summer window. However, The Red Devils have less than two days to take a call about the defender. The Italian media outlet further revealed if Magalhaes does land at Old Trafford or the Emirates, that would be a setback for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, who are looking to sign Napoli’s center-back Kalidou Koulibaly.

The Gianluca Di Marzio report has stated that if Napoli fail to sign Brazil’s Magalhaes, who has been in their sights over the last few months, ahead of the 2020-21 season, the Serie A club will not let go of Man City target Koulibaly.

It is understood that Magalhaes’s future will be decided in the next 48 hours or so. The young defender began his professional career at Brazilian club Avai before joining Lille’s youth system in 2017 before having loan spells at French side Troyes and Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb.

Even though Napoli and Man Utd are interested in acquiring the services of Magalhaes, the report in Gianluca Di Marzio report has revealed that Arsenal, courtesy of their $30 million offer, are still front-runners to sign the Sao Paulo-born defender.