The 19-year-old will quit Old Trafford in the summer - but who is he and is Louis van Gaal set to make a big mistake?
‘The one that got away’ is a phrase normally reserved for a failed personal relationship but it’s one many football clubs can relate to in their transfer dealings.
Manchester United are approaching three years since they allowed a 19-year-old Paul Pogba, frustrated at his lack of first-team opportunities, to leave Old Trafford on a free transfer for Juventus.
The story since is well documented. United have failed to plug a gaping hole in their midfield, a six-foot-two-inch Frenchman-sized hole. Pogba, meanwhile, is now one of the finest in his position in world football.
Imagine the dismay of the club’s supporters to hear that another talented youngster looks set to run down his contract and follow the exact same path to Turin at the end of the season.
Andreas Pereira, a 19-year-old Belgian-born, Brazil-Under 20 international (he plays for the country of his father’s birth), was signed from PSV in 2011 and is one of a number of talented foreigners who have been cherry picked from European clubs and planted into United’s academy over the past decade.
The teenager is the jewel in the crown of United’s Under-21 side, though the class of 2015 is lacking the quality of previous years, with last season’s FA Youth Cup campaign ending in a fifth-round defeat to Huddersfield Town.
Pereira played the full 90 minutes that night, as did another teenager in James Wilson. The latter has since broken into the first team, but his team-mate continues to play in front of several hundred people every other Monday night at Leigh Sports Village.
A technically sound, ball-playing midfielder, the prospect has caught the eye with outstanding goals and quality from set-pieces.
His opportunities to impress in the first team, however, have been fleeting. Pereira was introduced at half-time in the 4-0 mauling at MK Dons in the second round of the Capital One Cup. He hasn’t featured since.
His most notable impact has been in helping as a translator for a number of the club’s Spanish-speaking players, while he is also fluent in English, French and Portuguese.
Though he only turned 19 on January 1, the murmurings of discontent from the player’s camp have already begun to surface after he revealed the details of a conversation with a familiar figure - none other than Pogba.
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