£59m star ‘regrets’ joining Man Utd but ‘too late’ to make amends – report

A Manchester United star regrets not joining Real Madrid when he had the chance, claims a report in Spain, as Red Devils manager Ruben Amorim makes his opinion abundantly clear.

Madrid and Man Utd are two of the biggest clubs in the world, and both had a disappointing 2024/25 campaign. While Los Blancos lost their LaLiga and Champions League crowns, Man Utd finished as low as 15^th in the Premier League table and went down 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur in the final of the Europa League.

One of the players who failed to make a huge impact at Man Utd last season was Leny Yoro.

Much was expected of the French central defender when he joined Man Utd from Lille in the summer of 2024 for a transfer fee up to £58.9million (including add-ons (€68.3m, $80m).

Yoro suffered an early injury in his Man Utd career, and that forced him to play catch-up, with the 19-year-old also having to adapt to a managerial change when Man Utd sacked Erik ten Hag and brought in Amorim.

The Frenchman ended up making only 33 appearances for Man Utd last season, of which just 12 were Premier League starts.

According to Defensa Central, Yoro is disappointed at how his debut season at Man Utd panned out and regrets not joining Madrid last summer.

The Real Madrid-centric news outlet has reported that Madrid were keen on signing Yoro from Lille in the summer of 2024.

Los Blancos had agreed on personal terms with Yoro, but they did not want to pay the transfer fee that Lille wanted for him, a claim that The Guardian also made on July 16, 2024.

Man Utd ‘swooped in’ and satisfied Lille’s demands, with Yoro deciding to join the Premier League club instead of waiting until the summer of 2025 to sign for Madrid as a free agent.

Yoro ‘regrets having accepted his move’ to Man Utd, according to the report, which has revealed that the teenager’s ‘regret’ has ‘reached Real Madrid’.

However, it is ‘too late’ to do anything now, with Madrid having signed Dean Huijsen from Bournemouth earlier this summer.

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Man Utd have high expectations of Leny Yoro

While the 2024-25 campaign was disappointing for Yoro, Man Utd have big expectations of the striker this season, as well as in years to come.

Man Utd enjoyed a successful pre-season, winning three and drawing two of their five games.

Yono was a star for the Red Devils in pre-season, with the defender establishing himself as one of the first names on Amorim’s teamsheet.

Amorim has huge expectations of Yoro and has backed the Man Utd centre-back to become one of the best centre-backs in the world.

The Man Utd manager said on Sky Sports: “I think [Leny Yoro] can be one of the best centre-backs in the world.

“He improved a lot with the physicality. In the small things, he’s stronger; in set pieces, he’s getting the ball quite a lot. He’s going to be much better this season.”

While there might be some regrets on Yoro’s part not to join Madrid when he had the chance to, as Defensa Central has noted, there is no reason to suspect that he cannot be a star for Man Utd.

Man Utd are one of the biggest clubs in the world, and while they are not the force they once used to be, under Amorim, there is every possibility that the Red Devils could get back to their glory days.

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