Man Utd strike 'first of its kind' agreement with Swiss club

Cameron Smith

14 Oct 2024 14:30 BST
3 min read

Erik ten Hag, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Man Utd — © IMAGO

Manchester United have agreed a deal to send three academy players to train with Swiss side FC Lausanne-Sport this week.

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Habeeb Ogunneye, Jack Kingdon and Ethan Williams flew to Switzerland on Monday morning and will train with the Lausanne first-team for the entirety of the week.

The agreement has been described as “the first of its kind” by the Manchester Evening News, with the deal possible due to the fact Lausanne are also owned by INEOS chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

INEOS purchased Lausanne in 2017 and Man Utd believe their academy players will benefit greatly from the experience of training in a first-team environment in Europe.

OGC Nice are also in INEOS’ multi-club model, with the Ligue 1 side sending 10 players on loan to Lausanne since the start of 2020.

Lausanne are currently 10th in the Swiss Super League, out of 12 teams, having picked up just eight points from their opening nine matches.

Ogunneye, Kingdon and Williams will not feature in any competitive matches during their time in Switzerland, although they will train with the club’s senior side for the entire week.

The trio have all played a prominent role for Man Utd’s U21 side so far this campaign, although all three players are yet to make their first-team debut for the Red Devils.

Ogunneye and Kingdon are both highly-rated defenders, while Williams is an exciting left winger. He contributed 16 goals and eight assists in all competitions for Man Utd’s youth teams last season.

© IMAGO - Sir Jim Ratcliffe oversees all football operations at Man Utd

What has Sir Jim Ratcliffe said?

This summer, the aforementioned Ratcliffe explained the benefit behind INEOS’ multi-club model.

“I think Nice could be very complimentary to United for two reasons,” he told Bloomberg.

“One, you can blood younger players in Nice better than at United. Occasionally you get a Kobbie Mainoo but it can be harder to blood a player at United and that would obviously be of benefit to Nice.

“Secondly, because of Brexit, it’s quite difficult to contact the younger generational talents in Europe but Nice can do that. So if there’s a fantastic 15-year-old in France we can sign him up to Nice and use them as a conduit to United later on.”