A previous Golden Boy winner is the most recent star to be linked to a move to Old Trafford, and Manchester United will be looking to add proven quality to their team throughout the transfer season.

Rafael van der Vaart, who was born in 2003, took home the inaugural Golden Boy award. Since then, many gifted individuals have been honoured with the title, including Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, and Erling Haaland.

Manchester United, however, has their sights set on a different beneficiary for January as they prepare a ground-breaking contract for the gifted player.

Manchester United is preparing a bid for Matthijs De Ligt, as the Dutchman has fallen out of favour at Bayern Munich, according to Sky Sports Germany.

De Ligt had a great debut season after joining from Juventus in 2022 on a five-year contract for £68 million. He started 27 Bundesliga games during that time. However, Thomas Tuchel has pushed De Ligt lower in the hierarchy this term by favouring the combo of Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae. Additionally, Eric Dier just moved to Bavaria, increasing the competition at centre back.

Thus, a transfer to Manchester United is feasible, particularly in light of the fact that De Ligt was coached by Erik ten Hag at Ajax, when he was a youthful center-back winner of the 2018 Golden Boy award and was in the prime of his career.

At just 24 years old, De Ligt still has a lot of potential to become the elite defender that his Golden Boy award promised he would be. The purchase will likely be delayed by six months due to Manchester United’s financial concerns, so any action is probably going to happen in the summer.

De Ligt will likely get more chances to play for the Bayern first team within the next month or two because Kim Min-jae is also representing South Korea in the Asian Cup.