Manchester United talent close to joining Barcelona

Barcelona’s serious lack of depth at right-back could be solved by former La Masia talent Marc Jurado who’s reportedly looking to leave Manchester United.

The Spain U20 international left La Masia by rejecting a contract offer from Barca in 2020 and decided to join United. Real Madrid‘s Álvaro Fernández and Atletico Madrid’s Alejandro Garnacho also moved to Manchester in the same summer.

While Garnacho has managed to push himself into the first-team picture, Fernández and Jurado have struggled to make a breakthrough and both are likely to depart the English side before the close of the transfer window.

Fernández’s name has been linked with Granada. And according to Academy Scoop, Jurado is close to returning to Catalunya as he feels homesick.

Marc Jurado set to return to Barcelona

Jurado, who was absent from the Manchester United squad at both academy and senior level on Saturday, will reportedly rejoin La Masia in the coming weeks. The 19-year-old has a year left to run on his contract, as such the Blaugrana might have to pay a transfer fee to secure his services.

He has not managed to catch Erik ten Hag’s eye for competitive fixtures but was handed opportunity in pre-season. He even scored in a friendly against Wrexham in July.

One of the big reasons behind the lack of chances at the first-team level for Jurado at United is the abundance of senior right-back options that the Premier League club boasts of. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Diogo Dalot have both done well under the former Ajax coach and the latter has been heavily linked with Barca over the past 12 months.

Barcelona are very light at the right-back spot and even if they manage to get Joao Cancelo‘s loan signing from Manchester City over the line, a promising talent like Jurado could prove to be an interesting squad option.