{"id":775707,"date":"2026-02-19T21:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/775707\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:42:21","slug":"manchester-united-and-barcelona-battle-for-one-of-brightest-prospects-in-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/775707\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United and Barcelona battle for one of \u2018brightest prospects in world\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United and Barcelona have JMG Academy rising star Seydou Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 on their transfer agenda.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what <a href=\"https:\/\/africafoot.com\/fenerbahce-ne-lache-plus-seydou-dembele\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Africa Foot<\/a> are reporting, after the player turned 18 years of age earlier this week. This makes him eligible to move to the UK if Manchester United were to sign him.<\/p>\n<p>JMG Academy is a training company setup by former France midfielder Jean-Marc Guillou. He first started the venture in Ivory Coast and has set up several academies in Mali, Algeria, Egypt, Madagascar, Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p>Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 is now a part of the set up based in his country, in Bamako. His rise there helped him make debut for Mali\u2019s U17 in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester United and Barcelona in mix<\/p>\n<p>The attacking midfielder has scored six goals and contributed seven assists from 14 matches for Mali U17 and even starred at U17 World Cup last November. His performances have seen Manchester United and Barcelona take notice.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Sport Witness<a href=\"https:\/\/sportwitness.co.uk\/chelsea-make-e1-6-million-offer-for-african-wonderkid-also-being-tracked-by-barcelona\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> covered claims<\/a> of Chelsea\u2019s interest in the teenager. The Blues even submitted a \u20ac1.6m bid but it wasn\u2019t accepted. Africa Foot now points out the Club World Cup winners\u2019 failure to sign him and cover the latest.<\/p>\n<p>According to the outlet, the youngster is \u2018one of the brightest prospects in world football\u2019 and is attracting interest from several European clubs, including Manchester United and Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Competition to sign Demb\u00e9l\u00e9<\/p>\n<p>The Red Devils and the La Liga winners have been monitoring the Malian so far. These two clubs won\u2019t find it easy to secure his services because of tough competition.<\/p>\n<p>Africa Foot mention Manchester United and Barcelona in a report focusing on Fenerbah\u00e7e.<\/p>\n<p>The Turkish club have found Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 while on the lookout for young African talents and \u2018intend to do everything possible\u2019 to sign him, likely in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>According to the outlet, JMG Academy in Mali have a partnership with Red Bull Salzburg, and the Austrian club also hope to sign the young attacking midfielder.<\/p>\n<p>In short, Manchester United and Barcelona are in the picture to sign Demb\u00e9l\u00e9. However, both clubs will face tough competition from Fenerbah\u00e7e and Red Bull Salzburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United and Barcelona have JMG Academy rising star Seydou Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 on their transfer agenda. That\u2019s what Africa&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[199,748,393,31419,4884,2465,98,62524,226451,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-775707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fenerbahce","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-united","15":"tag-red-bull-salzburg","16":"tag-seydou-dembele","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116099478988205762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}