Manchester United have completed the signing of Lecce defender Patrick Dorgu in a deal worth £30 million.
The left-back has become Ruben Amorim’s first major signing after adding 18-year-old defender Ayden Heaven from Arsenal earlier this week.
The fee is understood to be £25.2m, plus £4.2m in add-ons, with the defender joining until 2030, including the option of a further year, having flown into Manchester on Wednesday to complete his medical at Carrington.
As Sky Sports News reported upon Amorim’s appointment, left wing-back had been circled as the priority position and was the one transfer highly likely to happen in this window regardless of the club’s situation.
Dorgu, 20, has made 53 appearances for Lecce in Serie A since joining from Danish club Nordsjaelland in 2022 and has been capped four times by Denmark.
‘Amorim’s vision is incredibly exciting’
Upon signing for United, Dorgu said: “I am incredibly proud to be able to call myself a Manchester United player; this is a very special day for my whole family.
“I cannot wait to work with Ruben Amorim; his vision for this team and the future of the club is incredibly exciting. There is a clear plan set out for my development, and I feel that Manchester United is the perfect place to fulfil my potential and complete my huge ambitions.”
Who is Patrick Dorgu?
Sky Sports’ Adam Bate:
Manchester United’s interest in Patrick Dorgu highlights how quickly the young Denmark international has progressed. He only made his debut in senior football last year but the Lecce left-back is already keen to take the next step in his career.
Lecce themselves, clinging determinedly to their Serie A status for a third season in a row, identified Dorgu in FC Nordsjaelland’s famed academy before he had even broken through. There too, at FCN, there is pride and satisfaction at the player’s development.
“Our good scouting spotted him quite fast,” Alexander Riget, their technical director, tells Sky Sports. It required Riget and the current Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup to make the trip to Jutland to see him. “It is a five-hour drive from here.”
They saw something in Dorgu, just 12 years old at the time. He played “one year up” in their U13 team but was not a standout star. “He was always a good player but he developed very well a little later, at the age of 16 or 17.” Before long, he was gone.
“His journey is a little different from many of our other players. Normally, they play 50 to 100 games and then leave for a bigger club.” Is that frustrating? “No, we were still a very important part of his journey. We are very happy about his situation at the moment.”
Read the inside story of Dorgu’s rise
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