Another Man Utd flop? €40m Amad Diallo is not the ‘new Messi’

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 9 Jan 2022 16:16 GMT
• 4 min read

There had rarely been as much excitement about a new signing at Old Trafford as when Manchester United bought Amad Diallo from Atalanta almost exactly a year ago.

The Ivory Coast winger joined on January 7, 2021 in a massive deal worth an eventual €40 million.

It was a colossal fee for an 18-year-old who had made just five senior appearances for Atalanta prior to his move to the Premier League.

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But the reports that had come out of Italy suggested this was a once-in-a-generation talent.

“He’s a future star, trust me,” former Atalanta captain Papu Gomez, who also left the club this time last year, said at the time.

“During our training, he seems like [Lionel] Messi! You can’t stop him!,”

Amad’s former coach Giovanni Galli – who played for Milan and Italy in the 1980s – predicted the wonderkid would win the Ballon d’Or within five years.

Things started promisingly for Amad. He scored two goals on his Manchester United Under-23 debut in the Premier League 2 match against Liverpool, including an impudent ‘Panenka’ penalty.

The youngster then followed that up with a hat-trick of assists and another goal in the 6-4 victory over Blackburn last week.

But, despite impressing for the Under-23s, it soon became clear that Amad wasn’t going to be considered much for Ole Gunnar Solskajer’s senior side.

He didn’t make his Premier League debut until May and was only really involved as a substitute in the Europa League until then. Amad scored the solitary goal in a 1-1 draw with Milan at Old Trafford in March.

That remains the only senior goal he has scored in a Manchester United shirt since arriving a year ago. He has just one assist during that time and has made only three starts and nine appearances in all competitions.

In 2021-22, he has played just once – a 1-1 dead-rubber against Young Boys when Man Utd were already qualified as Champions League group winners.

A loan move to Feyenoord collapsed at the end of the summer transfer window after the player picked up an injury in training.

United are trying to find him a new club to go out on loan to this January, with a temporary transfer to the Championship the preferred option.

Amad is still only 19 and it is clear that he needs time to develop.

Hailing him as the ‘new Messi’ and a future Ballon d’Or winner will not have done the youngster any good, nor will have his €40m price tag.

Too much pressure was put on his shoulders to immediately become a star at Old Trafford and he now needs the room to grow away from the chaos that is engulfing his current club.