Man Utd hijack Barcelona’s first summer signing in dramatic U-turn

Robin Bairner

Updated: 1 May 2025 12:23 BST
5 min read

Ruben Amorim, Man Utd, 2024/25 — © IMAGO

Manchester United are ready to hijack Barcelona’s move for Jonathan Tah, the player who was expected to become the first signing of the summer at Camp Nou.

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Tah has already announced that he will leave Bayer Leverkusen as a free agent at the end of his contract in June and it had been expected that he would join Barca, who have been courting him for an extended period.

Current ETV

Jonathan Tah

D (C)

Bayer 04

Jonathan Tah

D (C)

Bayer 04

ETV Range

€22.8M - €27.8M

Man Utd are ready to swoop in to disrupt a deal as delays on the side of the Catalans have put the move in doubt, Sky Sports reports.

Germany international Tah is also being tracked by Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, who are considered to have an increasing chance of landing the 29-year-old given that current B04 head coach Xabi Alonso seems Bernabeu-bound in the summer.

Barcelona’s move, meanwhile, appears to have been weakened because of their financial position. The Blaugrana have had issues registering players, with Dani Olmo notably causing a scandal in Spain due to claims that the Catalans falsified accounts to allow him to feature.

Consequently, there are doubts over how the club might accommodate Tah in their salary structure.

© IMAGO - Jonathan Tah, Bayer Leverkusen

Jonathan Tah to Barcelona not a done deal

Man Utd are one of the clubs poised to take advantage.

Although there have been some doubts cast over the addition of a centre-back at Old Trafford in the summer, given there are so many other areas to address, the possibility of signing Tah on a free transfer is an attractive one.

He has experience at the top level of European football and is a proven title winner with Leverkusen. The opportunity to sign him without a transfer fee is too good to at least explore, with football transfer news reporter Fabrizio Romano hinting that the Barcelona move is on the verge of breakdown.

“My information is that the Jonathan Tah deal is not done with Barca. They've been in conversations for a long time with Tah, available as a free agent, German player, well known by Flick, same agent as Flick. But the plan was maybe Ronald Araujo leaves in January to Juventus and they need one more centre-back,” Romano said.

“Tah was perfect, but then Barcelona knew that Araujo wanted to extend his contract. Then you have Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Andreas Christensen, Eric Garcia, and all the others at the centre-back position, obviously including also Inigo Martinez, who extended his contract. It's very clear that they have many centre-backs.”

The race for Tah, who seemed destined to move to Barcelona just a matter of weeks ago, appears very much on.

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