Bayern Munich supporters are going to extraordinary measures to prevent Matthijs de Ligt from joining Manchester United.
Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano left United supporters ecstatic on Tuesday with his revelation that De Ligt had ‘given the green light’ to a transfer to Old Trafford. All that remains is for the two teams to agree on a cost for the 24-year-old.
De Ligt had many injuries during the first half of the 2023-24 season, and Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae became Thomas Tuchel’s favoured center-back pairing. But once recovered, the Netherlands international was able to reclaim his place on the team and performed admirably with Eric Dier. Indeed, Bayern supporters see De Ligt as a “world class defender,” and many have signed a petition urging that he stay in Bavaria.
The petition, signed by more than 16,000 people at the time of writing, reads: “We all want Matthijs de Ligt to stay at FC Bayern Munich! He has proven that he‘s a world class defender, probably the best in our squad. There is a reason why he was elected as our best player in the 2022-23 season. Furthermore he is only 24 years old and has a bright future ahead, which he is going to use to fulfil his huge potential.
“Despite his young age, Mattha is already very mature and has a great mentality which will definitely make him a leading figure in defence and probably a competitor for captaincy in some years. His ability to speak English, German and Dutch fluently would help him a lot for that. With 19 years he already brought Ajax Amsterdam to the UCL semi finals as captain.
“Selling Matthijs de Ligt would be an absolutely horrible decision and we would definitely regret it. That‘s why we use our voice to call attention that we will NOT make this mistake!”
De Ligt is currently in Germany with the Netherlands, who progressed to the quarter-finals of the European Championship by beating Romania on Tuesday. The centre-back hasn’t played a minute of the tournament though due to Ronald Koeman’s preference to start Stefan de Vrij alongside Virgil van Dijk, and it’s unlikely we will see him with the Oranje suit up to face Turkey on Saturday.
