Man Utd continue chase of young South American talent
Published:South American signings may not have fulfilled their potential at Manchester United in the past, but Sir Alex Ferguson is still looking at the hotbed of potential young superstars on the continent who could make a real impression at Old Trafford.
Juan Sebastian Veron and Diego Forlan are two of the biggest South Americans to play for Manchester United and both arguably underachieved compared to the vast sums that were spent to land them.
The same can also be said of Anderson, although the young Brazilian does still have time to justify his price tag.
Therefore, it is only really Carlos Tevez who has starred and he benefited from gaining some experience of the nature of the Premier League at West Ham first.
The Da Silva twins are also progressing well, but because of the small sums they arrived for, it is hard to compare them to their fellow South Americans in terms of success.
Two of the latest young South Americans linked are Argentine wunderkind Lucas Ocampos and little-known Venezuelan striker Roberto Junior.
Ocampos has received some big reviews for performances for both River Plate and Argentina’s under-17 team and he is one of a raft of young players often dubbed the next Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, with Chelsea and Real Madrid among a host of other European clubs monitoring his availability, it is clear how highly-rated Ocampos is.
River would surely demand in excess of £10m for the midfielder and this would prove a reasonable risk for any club given the small amount of experience that Ocampos has.
Junior would be available for a much smaller sum and is the more likely to arrive at Old Trafford, especially given that he has just moved to the Dallas Texans, a feeder club for Manchester United.
Winning the Premier League would potentially boost the chances of Manchester United capturing the duo and this is something that can currently be backed at 2/1.
