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The move, subject to registration, is reported to be worth an initial \u00a348m with a further \u00a32m in add-ons. The 22-year-old arrives having captained Brazil at Under-23 level and won the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n Santos made 43 appearances for Chelsea last season. No Premier League midfielder under the age of 22 completed a higher share of their passes or made more progressive passes per 90 minutes over that period. He had spent the campaign before on loan at Strasbourg, where he wore the captain’s armband on multiple occasions and contributed 11 goals and five assists.<\/span><\/p>\n The Brazilian said he had dreamed of representing Manchester United since childhood. <\/span><\/p>\n “Everything about Manchester United is special; it is an incredible feeling to join a club that some of my biggest idols have represented,” Santos said.<\/span><\/p>\n “As a midfielder, I am really excited to have the opportunity to learn from Michael Carrick, he is the perfect coach to help me take the next step in my career and push to achieve my dreams.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Everybody told me about how ambitious the club is and the amazing environment that has been created here. I know just how strong the squad is and I cannot wait to fight together to compete for the biggest trophies.”<\/span><\/p>\n Director of football Jason Wilcox said Santos had been identified as a priority target as United continue to strengthen their midfield options. <\/span><\/p>\n “Andrey is an outstanding midfielder with excellent technical qualities and the ability to impact the game at both ends of the pitch,” Wilcox said.<\/span><\/p>\n “He was a key target for us in an important position, so we are delighted that he will join Michael’s squad so early in pre-season.<\/span><\/p>\n “Despite already having extensive experience, leadership abilities and proving his talent at the highest level, Andrey still has enormous potential to develop further, and we cannot wait to see him flourish at Manchester United.”<\/span><\/p>\n Santos becomes United’s first senior signing of the summer window and joins a squad rebuilding in midfield following Casemiro’s departure and a long-term injury to Manuel Ugarte. Chelsea are understood to have retained a sell-on clause as part of the deal, meaning they stand to benefit financially should United sell the midfielder on for a profit in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The move, subject to registration, is reported to be worth an initial \u00a348m with a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}