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The World Cup saw a remarkable run to the semi-finals for unfancied Morocco, with one of their stand-out stars in the tournament undoubtedly being Sofyan Amrabat.
The 26 year old’s performances put the world’s elite on high alert and Barcelona in particular looked to be lining him up as a natural successor to Sergio Busquets.
However, as recently reported here, Barça’s chaotic situation has led them to drop interest in the Fiorentina star.
This has opened an opportunity for United to be among the leaders of the chasing pack as they themselves seek to bolster their own threadbare midfield.
Scott McTominay, Fred and Donny van de Beek are all being regularly linked with an exit, while Marcel Sabitzer arguably did not do enough during his loan spell to convince United to make the move permanent.
This potentially leaves Christian Eriksen and Casemiro, who are both the wrong side of 30, as the only remaining experienced central midfield options.
Arsenal have also been linked with Amrabat, who has a market value of €26 million as per Transfermarkt.com.
And both clubs’ hopes will be raised by comments that the star made ahead of his side’s Europa Conference League final against West Ham tonight.
“Of course, the Premier League is a fantastic league, one of the strongest in the world,” Amrabat said (via The Daily Mail).
“It would be nice to play there one day, but it’s not that I want only to go to England, because Spain is nice, Serie A is a nice league.
“Of course, in England the intensity is very high, so I think it could suit me.”
Fiorentina’s asking price for the midfielder is unknown. Liverpool tried to sign him in the winter transfer window and the demand at that time was for around €35 million. However, that was hot on the heels of that World Cup performance.
Amrabat has one year left on his contract in Florence with the option of an extra year. There is therefore no urgency for the Serie A side to sell him, but they will have one eye on his contract running down.