Manchester United will officially recruit Atalanta winger Amad Diallo in January; clubs agreed a fee for the player on October transfer deadline day; Man Utd vs Leeds live on Sky Sports Premier League at 4.30pm on Sunday
Saturday 19 December 2020 08:41, UK
Atalanta winger Amad Diallo has been granted an Italian passport ahead of his pending £37.2m transfer to Manchester United, according to Sky in Italy.
United are optimistic the forward, who has also received Italian citizenship, will be granted a United Kingdom work permit to enable him to travel to Manchester next month.
The Premier League club confirmed they had agreed a deal for the 18-year-old on transfer deadline day in October, shortly after Diallo's proposed move to Parma collapsed.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer moved for the winger after their long pursuit of Borussia Dortmund's England international Jadon Sancho failed.
Diallo made the move to Atalanta's academy in 2015 and was handed his senior debut last October in the 7-1 victory over Udinese.
The youngster found the net after coming off the bench in that game and in doing so he became the first player born in 2002 to score a goal in Serie A.
Diallo has made four appearances in Serie A, while last season he scored seven goals and registered 11 assists in 24 appearances for the youth team.
In the 2018/19 campaign, Diallo scored 18 goals and delivered 13 assists and his impressive performances paved the way for him to begin training with Atalanta's senior squad.
Diallo, 18, was born in the Ivory Coast, before moving to Italy around the age of 10, joining Atalanta in 2015.
The youngster made his debut for Atalanta last season, becoming the youngest player - at 17 years and 109 days old - to score on his Serie A debut in their 7-1 thrashing of Udinese.
As a result, the Ivorian travelled with the Atalanta squad to Lisbon for their Champions League quarter-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
However, Diallo has featured in just three league games for Atalanta, totalling only 30 minutes of football, while he has also been an unused substitute for the Italians so far this season.
The player has, though, impressed in training, so much so that Papu Gomez recently likened him to a certain Lionel Messi.
"There are defenders in the first team that sometimes cannot stop him. To stop him in training, we have to kick him! He plays like Messi," said Atalanta's captain.
