If Manchester United are serious about bringing in one of the brightest young talents in Brazilian football – the next potential Samba superstar if you will – then Real Madrid’s Champions League thriller with Man City on Tuesday night must just be the push that the Red Devils need.
It is easy to forget, as Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes dovetailed in devastating fashion against Pep Guardiola’s side, that there was so much bemusement when Real Madrid snapped up both players for big money before their 18 birthday.
Vinicius was just 16 when he joined for an eye-watering £38 million. Rodrygo, one year later, arrived at the age of 17. You’d struggle to find a single person on planet earth now who would argue that combined £75 million-or-so investment was not worth every single penny and then some.
So while the prospect of Manchester United investing £35 million in a teenager without even a Wikipedia page to his name may have some supporters questioning the wisdom of INEOS’ youth-and-potential-based transfer strategy, it’s worth remembering that there were those who mocked Real Madrid when they made Vinicius the most expensive 16-year-old in the game’s history back in 2017.
Manchester United are keen on Palmeiras’ Thalys
“(Thalys) is a player who can play as a nine or a ten,” Brazilian reporter Jorge Nicola explains on his YouTube channel. “(He is) an excellent scorer of goals, with technical ability. He is a boy who is very popular.
“I went to check out the information that he is of interest to Manchester United. What I heard from one person at Palmeiras is that United asked about the price. The English giants are monitoring (the situation).
“The fee for Thalys is 40 million euros. Not one imagines that, at this point, you can make an offer of this size because the boy still plays in the Under 20s.”
Maybe not, but stranger things have happened. It is unlikely that Flamengo really expected Real Madrid to stump up such a considerable sum for either Vinicius or Rodrygo, long before they blossomed into perhaps the most exciting young attacking duo in world football.
Real also won the race to sign a 16-year-old Endrick from Palmeiras back in December 2022. If Thalys develops as rapidly as his fellow Allianz Parque whizzkid, then it surely won’t be long before Palmeiras have another sizeable windfall heading their way.
Thalys has five goals in six games for Palmeiras’ Under 20 side this season, after all.
Can Brazilian starlet be United’s answer to Vinicius Jr?
“Thalys is a player who started in the youth teams as a midfielder. But due to his finishing power, he was transformed into a striker. He shoots with his left leg, and he has a good height too (at 6ft tall),” Rogerio Amaral Junior of the Vamo Palmeiras side told us recently.
“He has a style a little similar to Endrick’s, mainly due to his accurate finishing and good participation in the construction of the play. It’s not a striker who gets trapped inside the area.
“He is seen within Palmeiras as a player with a lot of potential, both for performance on the field and for sale to Europe.”
Man United are expected to tap into the always-dazzlingSouth American youth market in pursuit of football’s next rising stars, with Thalys just one of a number of baby-faced wonderkids under consideration.
United also like Boca Juniors defender Aaron Anselmino and River Plate winger Agustin Ruberto, to name but two.