Such is Manchester United’s awful luck with transfers over the years, we often tend to look at the major misses.
One of those is failing to land Jude Bellingham, who chose to sign with Borussia Dortmund, and is now a Champions League winner with Real Madrid.
On the other side of the coin, Manchester United beat competition from Dortmund the same summer to sign Alejandro Garnacho from Atletico Madrid.
United paid a six-figure fee for Garnacho, one of the great bargains in the modern Manchester United era.
Atletico Madrid counting the cost of Garnacho exit
Alejandro Garnacho was recently valued as the most expensive Argentine teenager since Lionel Messi.
The Manchester United whizkid recently netted in the FA Cup Final against City, the first teenager to score in the game since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2004.
Garnacho is set to line up for Argentina at the Copa America, his first international tournament.
Atletico Madrid’s long-serving manager is Argentine legend Diego Simeone, and he was well aware of Garnacho’s talent when he was in the club’s academy.
What he probably was not aware of, was the potential he might switch international allegiance. At the time he was a Spanish youth international.
TN Argentina report that at 16, Garnacho was ‘dazzling everybody’ while playing in Atletico’s youth team.
While described as a ‘rough diamond’, Atletico and Simeone were preparing to promote Garnacho up a level.
The outlet report: “Simeone had seen him and knew of his enormous potential: everyone believed that the next season would be the one in which the footballer took off.”
It is claimed Garnacho had however become unsettled at Atletico, and was willing to listen to offers from abroad, tempted away by following in the path of his idol Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United.
Simeone was described as saddened to see the whizkid leave the club, where he is now living up to his potential.
A dream for Garnacho since
Little did Garnacho know, a year later, Ronaldo would be re-signing for Manchester United, and by 2022, he was being gifted a hat-trick matchball by the Portuguese.
Ronaldo even provided the assist for Garnacho’s first ever Manchester United senior goal against Real Sociedad, before the experienced forward made an abrupt exit.
Garnacho had by that time begun to show glimpses of his potential, winning the FA Youth Cup with United, and earning a call-up with Argentina.
He is now sharing a squad with Lionel Messi at a major tournament, with many in his country wondering if he can be the next big hope for the world champions.