Manchester United have sent scouts to watch 18-year-old striker Oghenetejiri Adejenughure in action this season, with the teenage prospect likened to Erling Haaland
Manchester United are eyeing a swoop for a youngster that has earned comparisons to Manchester City star Erling Haaland. United are among a number of clubs reportedly interested in 18-year-old Oghenetejiri Adejenughure.
Adejenughure has been a prolific goalscorer in youth football and is currently enjoying his first taste of senior action at FC Liefering in the second tier of Austrian football.
Liefering are Red Bull Salzburg’s reserve team and Adejenughure has also continued to represent Salzburg’s Under-19s in the UEFA Youth League.
The forward was recently invited to train with the senior Austria set-up by manager Ralf Rangnick and the Daily Star are reporting that United have sent scouts to watch him in action this season.
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AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund are also said to be interested in Adejenughure, but United are hoping to learn from their mistakes with Haaland and sign the teenager for a ‘low fee’ and help him fulfil his potential at Old Trafford.
United did have the option to sign Haaland before he became one of the best players in the world, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer first recommending him to the club when the striker was a teenage prospect at Molde.
Solskjaer was coaching Haaland at the time and he would have been available for just £4million, but United decided against making a move. “I called United about six months before I took over and told them that I’d got this striker that we had, but they didn’t listen,” Solskjaer told the Sun in 2023.
“I asked for £4million for Haaland, but they didn’t sign him.” After Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford on an interim basis in 2018, he once again told the club to sign Haaland.
The striker had agreed to join Red Bull Salzburg earlier that year, but had a release clause in his contract worth around £17m. “Erling was with me at Molde for two seasons, more or less,” Solskjaer said on the Stick To Football podcast earlier this month.
“The summer before I came, I rang the club and said: ‘You have to sign this boy, he is going to be absolutely top class.’ That was in June or July and they said they didn’t have enough reports.
“By the time I came in as caretaker, we [Molde] had sold him to Salzburg. I tell the club straight away: ‘Buy him.’ He had a release clause. No-one else then would have paid that money.
“It was 20m euros and it would have been a bargain. It was the club’s decision to not go for him then. We didn’t go for him until he started scoring for Salzburg but then Dortmund, Juventus, everyone was there.”
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