Manchester United Targets Nicolo Tresoldi as Striker
Manchester United’s search for a striker has a new, unlikely focal point: Nicolo Tresoldi, the Club Brugge forward who has been terrorising Belgian defences and catching the eye of Europe’s data departments.
Inside Old Trafford, they will admit it quietly. When Tresoldi’s name was first mentioned to one member of staff, it drew a blank. No recognition, no instant scouting report. But that says more about human recall than United’s modern machinery. On the club’s data-driven long list of striker targets, the 21-year-old is very much there.
And with good reason.
A goalscorer on the rise
Tresoldi finished last season as the top scorer in the Belgian top flight, delivering 23 goals and nine assists in all competitions for Club Brugge. He does not turn 22 until next month, yet he already looks like a forward heading towards the elite end of the European market.
Yes, the Jupiler Pro League sits a rung below the Premier League in quality. The question with any breakout striker from Belgium is whether the numbers travel. Tresoldi has already offered a compelling early answer: goals against Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Monaco in the Champions League. When the stage got bigger, his finishing stayed sharp.
United know the division well enough. Their last dip into that market, for goalkeeper Senne Lammens, was a resounding success. Tony Coton, the club’s chief goalkeeping scout, pushed Lammens’ case, the data backed it up, and United were rewarded. Tresoldi fits the same pattern: strong underlying numbers, upward trajectory, and a price that still sits in the “value” bracket rather than the superstar stratosphere.
Brugge dig in, Roma move first
Club Brugge, fresh from a title win in which Tresoldi’s penalty-box instincts proved decisive, have no desire to cash in. Belgian champions do not willingly part with the league’s top scorer in the same summer they are planning another push at home and in Europe.
Pressure is building, though. Roma have already moved, with Belgian reports claiming the Serie A club have tabled a bid worth up to €35m (£29m). Local coverage suggests Tresoldi’s head could be turned before the window closes. The clock is ticking, and the suitors are circling.
United sit in a different financial weight class to Roma. If they decide Tresoldi is the one, they can outmuscle the Italians: more money up front, more ambitious add-ons, and still no need to blow the budget. An offer in the region of £35m, paid decisively rather than cautiously, is widely believed to be enough to prise him away from Brugge.
For a club trying to rebuild smartly under Michael Carrick, this is exactly the bracket they want to operate in.
A strategy built on timing
United’s new recruitment model is simple in theory, ruthless in practice: sign players before they become £100m problems. Identify market value early, pay for potential and performance before branding and hype inflate the fee.
Tresoldi fits that template almost perfectly. He is already producing like a senior striker, but his valuation still reflects a player emerging from a smaller league rather than one already entrenched in the Premier League or La Liga. Keep scoring at this rate in Europe and for his country, and that number will not stay modest for long.
He has already brushed against the international elite. Tresoldi impressed for Germany at the Under-21 European Championship last year, performances strong enough that he came close to gatecrashing Julian Nagelsmann’s senior squad for this summer’s World Cup.
“Nicolo Tresoldi was very, very close to making the squad. He’s not a classic target man, but a classic striker,” Nagelsmann said. “He was extremely close, but ultimately he didn’t make the squad because we would have had to leave someone else out. That’s not easy.” The Germany coach stressed that Tresoldi’s time would come.
Born in Italy, Tresoldi moved to Germany at 13 to join Hannover’s academy, a path that shaped his game and secured his eligibility for the German national team. The blend is clear in his play: Italian edge in the box, German schooling in movement and structure.
United’s glaring gap
All of this interest comes against a stark backdrop at Old Trafford. As things stand, Benjamin Sesko is the only senior recognised striker in the squad. Across a season that could stretch to more than 60 matches, that is a gamble bordering on reckless.
Carrick has other options to play down the middle – Bryan Mbeumo, Amad, Matheus Cunha – but none of them are natural No.9s. Joshua Zirkzee has led the line in the opening two pre-season games, yet his instincts drag him away from the penalty area, dropping deep to knit play rather than attacking the six-yard box.
Useful profiles, all of them. None of them a centre-forward in the old, unforgiving sense.
Tresoldi is. At 6ft 1in, he offers a physical presence without sacrificing mobility. His movement is sharp, his timing in the area clever, and he finishes with the kind of ruthlessness that turns tight games. Most of his goals for Brugge’s title-winning campaign came from inside the box. He lives where defenders hate to look over their shoulders.
For United, the pitch almost writes itself: join the biggest club in England, share the load with Sesko, and grow inside a squad being built to challenge for the Premier League under Carrick. The minutes will be there. So will the pressure, and the platform.
Short-term temptation, long-term need
Supporters, ever nostalgic and ever impatient, have pushed a different idea in recent days: a late move for Danny Welbeck, with Chelsea reportedly in advanced talks to sign the former United forward. As a one-season stopgap, Welbeck makes sense. He knows the league, knows the club, and would offer a reliable body through a gruelling schedule.
But stopgaps do not win titles on their own. Not when a manager is just beginning to shape a new era. Carrick needs a forward line that can grow with him, not just survive the next nine months.
That is where Tresoldi comes back into focus. Young, proven in one league, promising in Europe, on the cusp of the German national team, and still years away from his peak. His profile matches United’s stated strategy almost too neatly.
Right now, not many inside England could pick Nicolo Tresoldi out of a line-up. If United decide to move, that anonymity will not last long.
