£47m Man Utd star confirms he turned down Arsenal and Chelsea to make Old Trafford move instead

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·27 marzo 2025

£47m Man Utd star confirms he turned down Arsenal and Chelsea to make Old Trafford move instead

Almost two seasons into his Manchester United tenure, there are still doubts over whether Andre Onana was an appropriate piece of business.

The goalkeeper has recently become a popular talking point of the international break amid speculation he’s planning to make a move to Saudi Arabia in the summer.

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While there may be interest from a handful of Saudi Pro League outfits, Onana is said to be fully focused on United and would only consider a premature exit if he is directly told that he’s no longer wanted.

In line with that, reports have suggested INEOS chiefs are scouring the market for a new No.1 to succeed the Cameroonian between the sticks in 2025/2026. Burnley’s James Trafford, a Manchester City academy graduate, is seemingly of interest.

Onana chose United from a host of suitors in 2023

The jury is still out on Onana at Old Trafford. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

At the time of his £47.2 million move from Inter Milan, United had just allowed longstanding servant David de Gea to leave as a free agent. Onana was directly targeted by Erik ten Hag, whom he’d played under at Ajax.

The 28-year-old’s ball-playing abilities were what set him aside from other candidates – that and the fact he’d become yet another one of the Ten Hag-coached players to arrive during the ex-manager’s stint.

Onana has since struggled considerably to replicate his promising form in a United shirt and has already accumulated a catalogue of costly howlers, at times proving detrimental to the team’s results.

Interestingly enough, he could well have been doing so for one of United’s Premier League rivals, as he has confirmed that two London clubs had approached him prior to his Manchester switch.

“I had Monaco, I had Nice, I had Atletico de Madrid, I had Chelsea, Arsenal [interested in me],” Onana told Le Media Carre.

When pressed on which other side he came closest to joining, he replied: “Lyon. I spoke with the president [and] the technical director, so it was advanced anyway. It was difficult for me to speak with the president because I decided to learn Italian.”