United will pay around £37.2m including add-ons for Diallo
Monday 5 October 2020 23:48, UK
Manchester United have reached an agreement with Atalanta for winger Amad Diallo, who will join the club in January.
United will pay £37.2m, which includes add-ons, for the 18-year-old, who looked set to join Parma until the transfer collapsed.
The deal is subject to Diallo passing a medical, agreeing personal terms and being granted a work permit.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been keen to sign a winger for the entire window and the club had been in talks with Barcelona over a loan move for Ousmane Dembele, while a £91.3m offer for Jadon Sancho was rejected by Borussia Dortmund last week.
Diallo made the move to Atalanta's academy in 2015 and was handed his senior debut last October in the 7-1 victory over Udinese.
The youngster found the net after coming off the bench in that game and in doing so he became the first player born in 2002 to score a goal in Serie A.
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Diallo has made three appearances in Serie A, while last season he scored seven goals and registered 11 assists in 24 appearances for the youth team.
In the 2018/19 campaign, Diallo scored 18 goals and delivered 13 assists and his impressive performances paved the way for him to begin training with Atalanta's senior squad.
Diallo, 18, was born in the Ivory Coast, before moving to Italy around the age of 10, joining Atalanta in 2015.
The youngster made his debut for Atalanta last season, becoming the youngest player - at 17 years and 109 days old - to score on his Serie A debut in their 7-1 thrashing of Udinese.
As a result, the Ivorian travelled with the Atalanta squad to Lisbon for their Champions League quarter-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
However, Diallo has featured in just three league games for Atalanta, totalling only 30 minutes of football, while he has also been an unused substitute for the Italians so far this season.
The player has, though, impressed in training, so much so that Papu Gomez recently likened him to a certain Lionel Messi.
"There are defenders in the first team that sometimes cannot stop him. To stop him in training, we have to kick him! He plays like Messi," said Atalanta's captain.
