Man Utd Make Audacious Move For South American Super-Star

The opening of the summer transfer window is fast approaching so we’ll bring you all the latest transfer rumours and gossip from around the globe. Today, Manchester United are linked with Lionel Messi.

Manchester United have made an audacious approach to explore the possibility of signing Barcelona super star Lionel Messi in what would be a world record transfer, according to the Daily Mail.

Messi has been with Barca his entire professional career having progressed through their La Masia youth academy following his arrival from his native Argentina as a youngster in 2001.

The 28-year-old has developed in to the best player on the planet, scoring an incredible 453 goals in 531 games to help Barca win a whole host of top honours including 8 La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies.

However, the Daily Mail claim that Manchester United have made two enquiries over the past three weeks to assess the possibility of luring the South American super-star to Old Trafford at some point in the near future.

If that’s not shocking enough, the newspaper suggests that sources close to the striker’s camp have refused to rule out the idea as Messi is understood to be frustrated and hurt by the media circus in Spain that’s surrounding his tax evasion case.

The player was heckled as he entered the courtroom last week as the trial against him began with Messi accused of using fake companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying tax on millions of pounds worth of earnings between 2007-2009 – something the player denies.

However, it appears Messi isn’t happy with how he’s being treated over in Spain and the Daily Mail seem to think it’s not out of the question that he could make a sensational move to Old Trafford – although any proposed deal would be delayed until the 2017/18 season when United will hopefully be able to offer Champions League football.

United have been desperately trying to pull off a marquee signing in recent transfer windows with the likes of Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Thomas Muller all strongly linked but signing Messi would eclipse them all.

Any potential deal would have to be a world record fee in excess of £100m and while many people may think ‘why would Barca sell?!’, Messi’s current deal expires in 2018 so they may be forced to cash-in if the striker refuses to sign an extension because he’s unsettled in Spain.

READ MORE –> Man Utd transfer news

Obviously this is all speculation at this point but it would be a sensational piece of business if United could somehow pull this off and they’d make millions back from endorsements, shirt sales and commercial deals if they managed to sign Messi.

It’s certainly one worth keeping an eye on over the coming months and Barcelona will start to get nervous if the Argentinean international doesn’t sign an extension towards the end of the year.

Could Messi end up in the Premier League? Let’s hope so!!