Ajax striker Brian Brobbey, who previously worked under Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag, has opened the door to joining the Red Devils in the future.
The 22-year-old previously spent 11 seasons in Amsterdam from 2010 to 2021, making his first foray into senior football while Ten Hag was in charge of the Eredivisie giants.
Brobbey briefly left his homeland to sign for RB Leipzig on a free transfer in the summer of 2021, but he spent just one half-season in Germany - playing 14 games and scoring no goals - before being loaned back to Ajax.
The Dutch outfit subsequently rebought Brobbey for £14m one year later, and the striker has come good with his boyhood club this season, having a direct hand in 26 goals in 26 Eredivisie games.
Despite Ajax's struggles throughout the campaign, Brobbey has come up with 17 top-flight strikes of his own in addition to nine assists, putting him fourth in the top scorers list behind Luuk de Jong (26), Vangelis Pavlidis (26) and Santiago Gimenez (21).
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Brobbey names three clubs he wants to play for
Contributions in the Europa League and KNVB-Beker means that Brobbey's record for the campaign stands at 21 goals and 10 assists from 39 games, and he could be the subject of a transfer scramble this summer.
Ajax are well-placed to demand a significant fee for the 22-year-old, whose contract runs for another three seasons, but his recent comments in an interview with the Dutch edition of Men's Health magazine may put Man United on red alert.
When asked about any foreign teams he wished to represent, Brobbey name-checked the Red Devils along with two other European giants, saying: "Real Madrid is a great club, but so are Arsenal and Manchester United."
Brobbey's comments come in spite of his previous rejection of Man United, who tried and failed to bring him to the Theatre of Dreams in the summer of 2022 when Ten Hag had just been appointed first-team manager.
It was clear that the Netherlands international was to leave Leipzig, but despite the lucrative wages on offer in England, he snubbed a Ten Hag reunion to return to Amsterdam.
Could Man United, Real Madrid or Arsenal do with Brobbey?
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Two years later, Brobbey is firing on all cylinders in the Eredivisie and could be an intriguing option for Man United, even if his former boss Ten Hag does not stay on at Old Trafford for the 2024-25 season.
A new centre-forward is high on the Red Devils' priority list, and they would be working with a man who excels in finding the mark in Brobbey, as 71.4% of the Dutchman's shots over the past 365 days have been on target.
That statistic puts him in the top 1% of players in Europe's top five leagues, but while he is slightly more senior than 20-year-old Rasmus Hojlund, Man United will likely pursue a more experienced option.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to see Brobbey's Real Madrid dream being fulfilled unless there is an almighty collapse in negotiations with Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe, thought to be on the verge of joining Los Blancos on a free transfer.
Arsenal's search for a number nine is well-documented, but Brobbey does not appear to be high on Arsenal's shortlist, which is currently topped by Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko and Sporting Lisbon's Viktor Gyokeres.
Ben Knapton
