Marc-Andre ter Stegen is the third Barcelona star to be linked with a stunning move to Manchester United as the LaLiga champions pursue Marcus Rashford.
Rashford is due to return to Man Utd after Aston Villa decided against activating their £40million (€47m / $54m) option to sign him permanently. The forward has no future at Old Trafford as Ruben Amorim will not reintegrate him into the first-team squad.
Soon after Rashford joined Villa, TEAMtalk revealed that he ultimately had his eyes set on signing for Barcelona in the future.
A blockbuster move to Barcelona could come to fruition this summer. Rashford’s agent and brother Dwaine Maynard was pictured meeting Barca sporting director Deco in a hotel in Spain last week.
The main issue for Barca is that they will struggle to meet the Englishman’s £40m price tag unless they sell at least one important player.
According to Football365, who cite reports emerging from Spain, Barca could send Ter Stegen to United and get Rashford in return.
Deco is ‘studying the options’ to sign Rashford after identifying him as a ‘perfect profile’ for Hansi Flick’s attack.
An idea that has ‘begun to circulate strongly within the sporting management’ is to ‘offer Ter Stegen as part of a player swap’.
Barca are happy to offload the top-class German goalkeeper as they have ‘agreed a deal in principle’ with Espanyol’s Joan Garcia to replace him.
The report explains how United could take up the opportunity to sign Ter Stegen as they are ‘looking for a goalkeeper’ to replace the unreliable Andre Onana.
Ter Stegen is supposedly ‘open’ to a ‘change of scenery’ by joining United as he ‘feels he is being pushed towards the exit door’ by Barca.
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Ter Stegen to replace Onana?
While Ter Stegen is a fantastic keeper and undoubtedly better than Onana, it remains to be seen if they would be willing to accept such a swap as he is 33 years old.
Such a transfer would put United at risk of having to enter the market for another keeper in a year or two.
Plus, Rashford is far more valuable than Ter Stegen as he is in his prime years.
Ter Stegen is not the first Barca star to be named in a possible swap deal. It was claimed on Thursday that Fermin Lopez and Ronald Araujo are two other players Barca might put on the table.
They know United are keen on Lopez and Araujo. Ultimately, however, United want to receive that £40m in full to increase their transfer kitty for this summer.
Barca began the bidding for Rashford by offering a loan with an option to buy, which has not met United’s demands.
Unless Barca significantly increase the terms on offer, United will have to sound out different suitors. That would not please Rashford though as he dreams of starring for Barca.
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