Teenage centre-back Lucas Harrington has instantly become one of the hottest properties of the summer transfer window, with glamour club Barcelona racing seven Premier League teams, including Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea, for his in-demand signature.
Sports blog TEAMtalk this week reported a huge, star-studded list of football clubs interested in picking up the 18-year-old Aussie superstar.
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It reads like a who’s who of football: Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Monaco, Lille, Atalanta, Union Saint-Gilloise, and Ajax have all made inquiries.
Scouts from Liverpool, Everton, United, Aston Villa and Newcastle have been keeping tabs, too, according to the reports. And Chelsea’s owners BlueCo and Manchester City’s parent company City Group have “held talks” about bringing Herrington into their systems.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing from an Aussie side is Brisbane’s most recent call. Herrington’s transfer was in the spotlight during the Australia’s run at the World Cup when it emerged his former club Roar accepted $560,000 from Colorado to scrap their lucrative sell-on clause.
That means they won’t get a cent of what could be a multi-million transfer. Now, only the Colorado Rapids will benefit, financially at least.
Considering Rapids hold all the power, it’s likely Herrington plays another year in the U.S. — Colorado wants to keep him on a 12-month loan (after he’s been signed) before he heads over to Europe permanently.
Other Socceroos that could make similar moves include Alessandro Circati, Jordy Bos, Nestory Irankunda, that latter of whom has already had a $16 million bid rejected by his club, Watford. New Premier League side Hull City had wanted to sign the breakout Australian winger.
And elsewhere, Paul Okon-Engstler is moving to the Bundesliga on a €1 million deal to play for FC Koln. He’s formally signing for four years this week.
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