Benjamin Sesko has been scouted extensively by Manchester United and one of the club's key recruitment figures is leading the charge for the RB Leipzig striker this summer
Manchester United could sign Benjamin Sesko after RB Leipzig reportedly slashed their asking price for the striker. United have splashed £133.5million to sign Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo in the summer transfer window, but still lack a centre-forward.
United managed a pathetic total of 44 goals as they finished 15th in the Premier League last season, with Rasmus Hojlund netting just four times in the league. Ruben Amorim knows they need reinforcements this summer and has moved to land two of the league’s most exciting forwards in Cunha from Wolves and Mbeumo from Brentford.
Mirror Football understands that, after negotiations for Mbeumo dragged on, there is a feeling that United may start the Premier League season on August 17 without a new striker. The club were beaten to Liam Delap by Chelsea, to Hugo Ekitike by Liverpool and Viktor Gyokeres by Arsenal.
And while there is interest in Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson and Paris Saint-Germain's Randal Kolo Muani, there could also still be a glimmer of hope for United in the form of Sesko, who is available from Leipzig.
Arsenal had initially preferred a move for Sesko over Gyokeres – in part due to the fact that he is five years younger – but they backed out of the transfer with Leipzig demanding a fee between £68m and £85m.
However, BILD now reports that a fee of around €70million (£60m) could be enough to get a deal done for Sesko, who notched 13 goals in the Bundesliga last season. United’s head of scouting Christopher Vivell has been to watch him personally and is understood to be a big fan of the Slovenian forward.
Sesko is under contract with Leipzig until June 2029 and scored 21 goals in 45 games across all competitions last season. The 22-year-old is not agitating for a move, as his agent explained earlier this summer.
Asked about rumours that he had been lobbying Leipzig to lower their asking price, Elvis Basanovic said: “This is far from truth. We respect RB Leipzig and I am 100 per cent convinced RB Leipzig will also respect our decision for the next step when we decide to do it. Even if there may be – or will be – a strong desire of the player to move to a certain club, we will never force or blackmail RB Leipzig.
“I believe this is not the right way, because the way you actually exit from the club shows your values. Values that you are bringing into a new club. I can understand in very big transfers, there are a lot of different interests but no matter what, I believe in football world should be more respect.
“So that’s why we do things in the right way or we don’t do them. It’s very simple, even maybe in the media it looks very complicated.”