Image Credits: Centredevils Illustrations
After weeks of transfer hype, it’s finally here, the news that Joshua Zirkzee will be joining Manchester United.
The news comes after a long pursuit which saw AC Milan and Manchester United as the front runners to sign the Dutch international, however Milan decided to step away with the expensive agent commission of £13 million assigned to the deal.
The interest from United came from an incredible season for Zirkzee, with the striker grabbing 12 goals and 7 assists in 37 games across all competitions, helping Bologna secure a fifth place finish in Serie A and reach the Quarter-Finals of the Italy Cup where they were knocked out by Fiorentina on penalties, despite the striker scoring his spot kick in the shoot-out.
With Zirkzee’s release clause of £34 million, United happily had the transfer budget to trigger the clause and bypass negotiations with Bologna, however this would have dramatically depleted their limited transfer budget of around £50 million. A decision was needed from United’s new sporting director, Dan Ashworth, on whether to go ahead with the deal or wait for any sales to take place to give their transfer budget a buffer.
However, now sports journalist Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that it’s a done deal and Zirkzee is all set to move to Old Trafford.
It’s understood that a deal of over €40M paid over three years has been agreed with the 22-year-old set to sign a contract of 5 years until 2029.
This deal sees a massive return for Bologna who bought him from Bayern Munich in 2022 for a mere €8.5 million, seeing the Serie A club generate an incredible €40M profit on their top striker.
