Manchester United to sign French prodigy

Manchester United are loosening all the purse strings at once. Following a trickle of reports over the course of the summer, it seems that they are now on the verge of completing the signing of 16-year-old Hannibal Mejbri from Monaco. The French starlet was also being pursued by a number of other big names — Juventus, Arsenal, and Manchester City among them — but it is United who have won the race for his talents.

Mejbri only joined Monaco a year ago, but because of some unspecified dispute, he has not played for their youth team in months. United are said to be paying somewhere in the region of €10 million for the services of the France U16 international. Mejbri is said to be very technically gifted (let’s please not pretend any of us have been watching the Monaco U16s to know for sure), and the eye-popping reported fee would certainly indicate an impressive talent.

Here’s a video of an even younger Hannibal playing football with other children: