Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may have signed the next Kylian Mbappe - 7M sport

Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may have signed the next Kylian Mbappe

Manchester United feel a young star can emulate Kylian Mbappe under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Old Trafford.


Posted Wednesday, April 29, 2020 by Express.co.uk

Back in the summer, Manchester United got to work. Daniel James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire all touched down from Swansea, Crystal Palace and Leicester respectively. But, somewhat under the radar, was Hannibal Mejbri. Big things are expected of the teenager, who has been compared to PSG's Kylian Mbappe.

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United paid £4.2million up front on Mejbri in the summer, installed with the belief that he could go on to become to them what Mbappe is for PSG.

PSG themselves, Tottenham, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City were all said to be chasing the teenager at the time, who had made his name with Monaco at youth level.

But United clinched the signing of the Frecnhman instead and, ever since, he's been the talk of the club's Carrington training complex.

He's supposedly so good he's been 'taking the p***' out of his team-mates in training.

One source with access to Under-23s sessions told The Athletic earlier in the year: "He is composed, can go past a player and break a line.

"He actually takes the p*** sometimes against players a couple of years older than him. He'll feint to strike then drag it and shoot the other way."

Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may have signed the next Kylian Mbappe
Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may have signed his own Kylian Mbappe (Image: GETTY)

United feel he can reach the top. The very top. A generation talent, one who already appears to possess an elite mentality.

Nicky Butt has urged caution. Speaking in February he said: "When you're a young player and you get brought in for a relatively big fee from a foreign club, you're gonna have everybody watching you, and he's aware of that.

"He's a very good player, talent-wise, or else we wouldn't have brought him in, so that's a given.

"But he is still only a baby, just six months out of school. He has still got a lot of growing to do.

"He is a good size vertically but he needs to fill out, get stronger, and he needs to learn certain parts of his game — like they all do.

"But we're very confident in that he's at a really good starting point.

Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may have signed the next Kylian Mbappe
Man Utd have high hopes for wonderkid Hannibal Mejbri (Image: GETTY)

"He's a very hard-working boy and hopefully, given time, and not too much pressure, he'll get to where we want him to be."

Mejbri is a different player to Mbappe. He plays in midfield, for starters.

But United feel he can transition into a fine attacker, one capable of both scoring and assisting goals all over the pitch.

Mejbri, like Mbappe, is a former student of the INF Clairefontaine pre-academy.

So too was Thierry Henry. The signs are certainly promising.

"Mejbri has been identified as the biggest talent of his generation since he was young," ESPN journalist Julien Laurens said at the time of his arrival.

Behind the scenes, Mejbri is a work horse. But his willingness to take things on board has left United youth coach Neil Ryan delighted.

"He comes with a high reputation, good player, lovely character, good kid," he told the Evening Standard.

"He's working very hard and like every young kid in the club, he is learning still and we are seeing some really positive things from him on the pitch.

"He is part of a group of boys who are trying to push on and develop.

"They are all at stages in their career and it's not just him. It's a group of 28-30 players. He is one of a number of boys we have high hopes for."

He's so good that United are actually cautious about talking him up too much in public.

But the signs, so far, have been promising. And whether he can emulate Mbappe is something only time will tell.



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