Manchester United are facing competition from fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace for Derby County Nigerian young striker Malcolm Ebiowei this summer, metro.co.uk reports.
Ebiowei is expected to exit Derby County during the transfer window after making his Championship debut last season during the club’s doomed attempt to avoid relegation after a 21-point deduction.
The 18-year-old made 16 league appearances, 11 of which were starts, and scored one goal, in a win at Blackpool in April.
He had spent time with Arsenal and Rangers without making the cut, but his breakthrough under Wayne Rooney at Pride Park has seen him catch the eye of bigger clubs.
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Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano reports that United and Palace are leading the race for his signature.
French Ligue 1 outfit AS Monaco are also keen but the youngster prefers to move to a Premier League outfit.
Newcastle and Tottenham have also been linked with Ebiowei, so he has plenty of options in front of him as he looks certain to leave Derby over the summer.
Speaking after Ebiowei impressed in 1-1 draw against Coventry in March, Rooney was full of praise for a player he has tipped to have an extremely bright future.
“I thought he was excellent all game, best player on the pitch. It was one of the best performances I have seen from a young player, consistently for 90 minutes, in a long time.
“He deserved that because he has worked extremely hard. His attitude is incredible, he wants to learn and he is an exciting young player.
“First of all, his attitude is very good. He has got an enormous amount of ability, he is brave, he will take the ball, he is not afraid to take players on, to get tackled, to make mistakes. So he has got a really bright future.”
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COMMENTS
Nigeria needs to cap this player [ Malcolm Ebiowei] as soon as possible before we lose him to England. I mean, at the senior international level. He could even be tried at the creative mid-field position. We should not wait to invite him to the U-20s. His English club will find an excuse to block him from honoring it. NFF needs to move now!
He was part of the Nigerian 2019 u17 and our football politics as usual did not allow him go to the world cup…….Of all the players that eventually went to the world cup only Amoo is still balling at a semi high level even though it’s still on a management level……The satanic policy of playing politics unchecked at age grade level will cost Nigeria our future stars if it’s not checked……This coaches will tell you that before a foreign player can break into his team he must be better than everyone but you and I know that what he means is that they must pay money……I just pray we don’t miss Malcolm too because once he makes the EPL move then expect England to tie him down with the u20 but if he had gone to the world cup with the Golden eaglets then it will be almost impossible to change his mind as he would have been emotionally attached to Nigeria already and England might feel too proud to go after A junior international of Nigeria.