Chelsea and Man Utd given hope of landing new Van Dijk with 'FAKE NEWS' message

Robin Bairner

• 24 Jan 2024 07:29 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea and Manchester United retain hope of signing Lille defender Leny Yoro, who had been hotly linked with a January transfer to PSG.

Touted as a player who could become a future version of Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk, it had been reported that the 18-year-old would sign for the Ligue 1 leaders this month in a blockbuster deal.

Lille president Olivier Letang, however, has kept the race open for the talented teenager with a clear ‘fake news’ message sent in Le Parisien.

“He will not leave in January, so there are no negotiations, no discussions contrary to what some suggest!” he explained on Tuesday.

Lille send clear Yoro message

This is a continuation of the message that Letang has been sending for weeks.

In December, he was asked about Yoro’s future and replied: “He is with us. We have our targets for the season and he continues to grow and flourish with us.

“There is only one judge, which is the pitch and his sporting performance so that is why we must protect him from all these rumours, these discussions.

“I read somewhere that I had set a price, which is completely false, but when boys have talent there is bound to be a lot of speculation. That's why we have to let him concentrate on the sporting side of things.”

Yoro recently switched to Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes, who already has numerous players in the PSG squad, including Warren Zaire-Emery, Bradley Barcola, Manuel Ugarte, Goncalo Ramos and Vitinha.

But while the Ligue 1 leaders are clearly hot for the promising centre-back, a threat continues to come from England, where Chelsea and Manchester United have both been linked with him.

According to data analytics firm SciSports, Man Utd are the better fit for Yoro of this pair. Indeed, United are even a marginally better option than PSG, according to the experts’ Career Advice tool.

Tottenham and Arsenal are the ideal locations in England for the defender, SciSports indicates, yet neither appears to be in the running for the Lille star.

Yoro, meanwhile, is the third most promising teenaged centre-back in world football , SciSports reports, with only Kasimpasa’s Yasin Ozcan and Rennes’ Jeanuel Belocian thought to have a higher ceiling than him.