Winners and losers of Matthijs de Ligt to Man Utd

Cameron Smith

13 Aug 2024 14:30 CDT
4 min read

Erik ten Hag, Man Utd, Matthijs de Ligt — © IMAGO

Matthijs de Ligt has officially joined Manchester United from Bayern Munich.

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In the process, De Ligt has extended his own record as the defender with the highest combined transfer fees in history.

Despite the purchase of Leny Yoro earlier this summer, Man Utd pushed to sign De Ligt too and he has arrived for an initial fee of €45 million.

With Everton setting a huge asking price for Jarrad Branthwaite, Man Utd turned their full attention to De Ligt and the move has now been confirmed.

Below, FootballTransfers runs through the winners and losers of De Ligt’s move to Old Trafford.

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Winner - Matthijs de Ligt

De Ligt himself could be considered the biggest winner of this potential transfer. It didn't quite worked out at Bayern and a move to Man Utd has seen him reunited with Ten Hag.

The pair enjoyed a fantastic relationship at Ajax and the best ever spell of De Ligt’s career came under the management of Ten Hag.

As a result, the Netherlands international will be buoyed by linking back up with the Man Utd boss and it could help him rediscover his best form.

Loser - Harry Maguire

Raphael Varane’s departure provided the chance for Harry Maguire to take centre stage next to Lisandro Martinez at the heart of Man Utd’s backline.

However, that now looks incredibly unlikely, with De Ligt expected to become Martinez’s partner instead.

Maguire’s career at Man Utd is likely to continue, after his impressive end to 2023-24, but De Ligt has arrived to play a key role and Maguire will be the player who loses out as a result.

Winner - Everton

Everton will be extremely thankful for De Ligt’s proposed switch to Man Utd.

The Toffees have set an enormous asking price for Jarrad Branthwaite in a bid to ward off interest from the Red Devils and that approach appears to have worked perfectly.

Man Utd have moved on and Branthwaite is therefore likely to remain at Goodison Park. As a result, their hopes of a successful 2024-25 Premier League season have been massively boosted.

Loser - Jarrad Branthwaite

As mentioned, Branthwaite’s chances of joining Man Utd have been hugely impacted by De Ligt’s move.

The Englishman was keen to sign for the Red Devils, but given Ten Hag’s transfer budget, Man Utd are extremely unlikely to sign Branthwaite.

While Everton will be happy with this news, Branthwaite may not be.

Winner - Bayern Munich

Bayern have already signed Hiroki Ito for just €23.5m and considering De Ligt has been sold for double that amount, the Bavarians will be very happy with their transfer business.

The Dutchman is, of course, extremely talented, but he was unable to rediscover his very best form at the Allianz Arena and the Bavarians have earned a nice sum of cash by selling De Ligt and replacing him with Ito.

Furthermore, De Ligt only started 16 Bundesliga games last season, so he wasn’t a guaranteed starter, and Eric Dier’s arrival on a free transfer will also ease the blow of losing the ex-Ajax captain.