A largely overlooked clause in a completed Manchester United transfer has been detailed by Fabrizio Romano.
The primary goal at Man Utd before entering the summer window was revamping their goal-shy attack. Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko arrived, while there were no shortage of departures either.
Marcus Rashford (Barcelona – loan with option to buy), Jadon Sancho (Aston Villa – loan), Alejandro Garnacho (Chelsea – £40m), Antony (Real Betis – £21.7m including add-ons) and Rasmus Hojlund (Napoli – loan with conditional obligation to buy) all left.
Today’s update centres on Hojlund who after initial reluctance, accepted a move to Napoli to replace the injured Romelu Lukaku.
Lukaku suffered a serious thigh injury in August that prompted Napoli to dip into the market. After completing the deal on deadline day, Lukaku has since been left out of Napoli’s Champions League squad for the group phase, while Hojlund has been registered.
Man Utd received a €6m loan fee from Napoli and many outlets have stipulated the conditional obligation to buy worth €44m hinges on Napoli qualifying for the 2026/27 Champions League.
That aspect of the deal is true, and having won Serie A twice in the last three seasons and signing the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, qualifying for the UCL is the least Napoli will expect.
However, qualifying for the UCL alone would NOT be enough to turn the loan spell permanent.
Per Fabrizio Romano when speaking on his YouTube channel, an appearance target must also be met.
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Rasmus Hojlund deal conditions clarified
Romano said: “Man Utd received six million euros paid immediately (loan fee) plus the coverage of the salary of Rasmus Hojlund.
“So Man Utd are not paying the salary of the player this season and they’ve received €6m as a loan fee, which is good business for them.
“Napoli are very happy because they get a top striker and they have a buy option clause worth €44m. So the potential package is €50m.
“This buy option clause can become mandatory based on Napoli qualifying to the next Champions League edition and then on the appearances of the player.
“There is a number of appearances that has to be [made] in order for Napoli to trigger the buy obligation for Hojlund.
“Man Utd are quite confident about [sealing a permanent deal] because the player also wants to move on a permanent transfer.”
Romano did not specify how many appearances Hojlund must make to satisfy that aspect of the conditional obligation.
Nevertheless, the suggestion Man Utd are ‘quite confident’ a deal will be agreed strongly hints the appearance target is not high.
Furthermore, with Lukaku on the sidelines with a serious thigh injury and out of their UCL squad for the group phase, Hojlund can expect to feature heavily in his first few months in Naples at least.
A follow-up from Romano on X revealed that if Hojlund joins Napoli outright, there’ll be a release clause in his contract worth €85m. The clause would become active in the summer of 2027 and would be payable in three instalments.
Assuming Hojlund’s loan move to Napoli is made permanent, Hojlund will slot in at number four on the list of Man Utd’s most lucrative sales.
The Dane would bump Alejandro Garnacho down to fifth, with Angel Di Maria, Romelu Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo taking the top three spots.
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