Former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves has tipped Jadon Sancho as a future Ballon d'Or winner if he makes the move to Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are understood to view Sancho as their number one transfer target this summer, despite Borussia Dortmund's asking price of more than £100m for the 20-year-old.
Just about every other top club in Europe has also been linked with an interest in him, but Hargreaves believes that joining United could prove to be a wise choice despite the current gulf between them and the Premier League's top two.
"Jadon will know his own game and has to find what's best for him. But United have an exceptionally good group of young players coming through – and any top young player would want to be part of that. Obviously, Liverpool and Manchester City have moved away from everyone else in the Premier League, but United would still be a team to join," Hargreaves told BT Sport.
"Things go in cycles. Man United will be back and the recruitment of a player like Jadon would help. He knows Manchester well because he was at City, but whoever gets him will be very fortunate. I know Sancho is going to cost a lot of money, but you have a player who, potentially for the next decade, is going to be a unique player to watch.
"Can he become a Ballon d'Or winner? Yes, because potentially he is off the charts. The impact he has had already has been quite astonishing. A lot of people feel that young players will take time to develop. But if you look at players like Wayne Rooney and Jadon now, the great ones, the exceptional ones, figure it out.
"The game of football has become so structured and technical that a kid like him can bring his own style into the game and play with such creativity. It's so hard to anticipate just what he's going to do. Normally when you watch games of football, you know what is going to happen, whereas, with Jadon, he does things off the cuff almost like Neymar.
"That's priceless because he can make things happen when teams sit deep. When there's no space, Jadon finds space. I think that, like Wayne, put Jadon in the middle of whatever the league is in any country and he would thrive. I covered Dortmund's game against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and Sancho was better than anyone on that pitch – even Kylian Mbappe and Neymar. His level is exceptional. He just thrives on creating and scoring goals."
Sancho has scored 17 goals and created 19 more in 36 games for Dortmund across all competitions this season.
Barney Corkhill
