RB Leipzig director Ralf Rangnick has revealed that the German club pulled out of the race to sign Swiss sensation Breel Embolo because of the interest from Manchester United and he also claimed United had submitted a £33.4 million bid. The Red Devils were rumoured to be keen on the youngster as United manager Jose Mourinho is an admirer of the Swiss forward.
The Leipzig director divulged that the Bundesliga newcomers were in advanced talks with FC Basel and they would have signed the youngster if United hadn’t stepped in with a huge bid. “The player and the consultant wanted to join us and we agreed Breel’s contract with them,” he told the German daily, Blick.
“Breel would have been very good here, a player with his mentality. We were not very far apart [with Basel]. Our offer was already very high for the circumstances. We wanted to let a few days pass, but then suddenly there was an alleged offer from Manchester United of over 40 million euros.
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“I said to myself: ‘Okay, if a club wants to spend so much money on a player, then they will make an offer within a week’. When after 14 days there was still no specific offer from Manchester United, we pulled out. We didn’t want to be in the passenger role,” he added.
However, it was FC Schalke who acquired Embolo’s services beating the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona, RB Leipzig and Wolfsburg. The Royal Blues even trolled the aforementioned clubs, through a video shared via the club’s Twitter account, after completing his signing for £20 million.
The young striker, who is considered to be one of the bright prospects of Swiss football, made his debut for Basel in March 2014. He made 90 appearances for the club scoring 31 goals and providing 22 assists before leaving St. Jakob-Park.
Embolo’s decision to snub United’s interest and move to the Veltins-Arena came as a surprise to many. The 19-year-old was offered a mammoth £74,000-a-week deal by Manchester United, but he turned down the offer as a move to the red half of Manchester would mean less amount of first team action.
Embolo made a good start to his life in Germany before suffering a nasty injury during Schalke’s game against Augsburg in October. The youngster was fouled by Konstantinos Stafylidis and the Augsburg defender’s challenge has ruled Embolo out for the rest of the season as the 19-year-old suffered an ankle fracture, a ruptured syndesmosis and a torn medial collateral ligament.
