Man Utd 'offer £25.4m to Barcelona' for star midfielder

Manchester United have made a £25.4m (€30m) bid to sign Barcelona midfielder Fermin Lopez, according to a report.

Fermin enjoyed an outstanding breakout season with Barca in 2023/24, contributing 11 goals and one assist in 40 games across all competitions.

His form didn't go unnoticed and he was named to Spain's 26-player squad for Euro 2024, making his senior debut for La Roja in a friendly against Andorra earlier this month.

Catalan outlet SPORT claim Barcelona have rejected an offer worth £25.4m from United for Fermin. The Red Devils are said to be in the market for a technically-gifted midfielder capable of crashing the box and scoring, and had identified Fermin as one of their top targets.

United's bid is the first that Barcelona have received for the 21-year-old this summer, but they do not intend to sell him, especially at the price they were offered by the Premier League side.

Barca's financial woes have been well-documented over the last few years, but they would not consider parting company with Fermin unless an unimaginably enormous offer came in for him.

United have previously been linked with Fermin's Barcelona teammate Frenkie de Jong, with manager Erik ten Hag making a huge push to sign him upon arrival at Old Trafford in the summer of 2022. Ten Hag has also spoken at length about how he believes his time as manager would have been more successful had a player of De Jong's characteristics been brought in at the start of his reign.

Unlike Fermin, De Jong is not at Euro 2024 having failed to recover from an ankle injury in time to make the Netherlands' final squad.

Fermin could feature for Spain when they take on tournament holders Italy in the pick of Thursday's Euro 2024 games.

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