Manchester United Abandon €45m Éderson Transfer Over Medical Concerns
Manchester United have dramatically pulled the plug on a €45 million move for Atalanta midfielder Éderson, abandoning what had been billed as their first major signing of the summer over concerns about his fitness.
The Brazilian was, by all accounts, done. Fabrizio Romano had declared the deal “100 per cent confirmed” at the start of June, with United and Atalanta having completed all the paperwork for a €45m package and personal terms agreed since May. Éderson was expected to sign later in the summer, the first piece of business for a club intent on building on last season’s surge under Michael Carrick, which ended with a third-place finish and a return to the Champions League.
The money and the platform are back at Old Trafford. So was the ambition. Éderson looked like the early symbol of that.
Then the brakes went on.
Romano has now revealed that United have informed Atalanta the transfer is off, the deal “collapsed” after the Premier League side changed course following medical concerns. Atalanta, for their part, are adamant there is no issue. They believe Éderson is fully fit and will simply reintegrate him into Gian Piero Gasperini’s squad.
For United, it is a sharp U-turn. For Atalanta, it is a midfielder back in the building.
The twist is particularly striking given how close Éderson himself believed he was to the move. Speaking at the World Cup, the 24-year-old made it clear he expected his future to be resolved once the tournament was over.
“I have to wait. Now I have to enjoy this moment, then we will see,” he told reporters. “Certainly, everything is almost done, but now I have to enjoy this moment. This is a wonderful experience and you have to enjoy the most.”
The confidence around the deal extended beyond the player and the clubs. Former Tottenham midfielder Sandro had hailed the fee as one of the market’s smarter pieces of business when he assessed United’s midfield options last month.
“I think Éderson as well, £38 million I believe,” he told BritishGambler.co.uk, contrasting the price with other names linked to United. “When you think, Man Utd are linked with Elliot Anderson, Sandro Tonali, Tchouameni from Real Madrid, they’re all obviously world-class players, but they are so expensive comparatively.
“I think £38 million for Éderson is a bit of a bargain, really, in today’s market, right?”
Sandro did not pretend to have watched every minute of Éderson’s club career, but he was in no doubt about the profile United were chasing.
“I know that he’s a top midfielder. He went to Brazil a few times with the national team. I saw a couple of videos, whilst I didn’t follow him game by game, I know that he’s strong. He has that physical ability to play in the Premier League and I know that a few other clubs wanted to sign him from the Premier League as well.”
That physicality now sits at the heart of the story. United’s medical team clearly saw enough to urge caution, and the club has chosen to step away rather than gamble on a player they had lined up as a cornerstone signing.
For Atalanta, who had already braced themselves for life without him, it is an unexpected boost. For Éderson, it is a jarring reset after believing his next step was all but sealed.
And for United, still armed with Champions League money and a renewed sense of status, the question is simple: who comes next to anchor the next phase of Carrick’s rebuild?
