Manchester United's local rivals Manchester City have dipped into the Argentine market in recent years, recruiting Julian Alvarez from River Plate in 2022 and then returning to the club for Claudio Echeverri this month.
Now the Red Devils, who have poached Omar Berrada from the Etihad to make him their new CEO, could adopt a similar strategy, albeit with River Plate's nemeses Boca Juniors. Earlier this week, it emerged that United had been in contact over centre-back Aaron Anselmino, a player attracting interest from a number of top clubs in Europe.
Anselmino recently signed a new contract that featured a release clause of £16m, but it has automatically increased to £20m for the final days of the transfer window in the hope of warding off any late bids. The goal for Boca was to avoid a repeat of the sale of Valentin Barco, the full-back who joined Brighton for £7.8m this month after refusing to sign a new deal that would have increased his release clause. They believed he'd left for well below his market value.
The question was whether United would escalate their evident interest in Anselmino, and now there's been a significant update on that front from Argentina.
Boca expecting bid from Man Utd
According to El Crack Deportivo journalist Jonathan Riniti, via Sport Witness, Manchester United are expected to make a bid for Anselmino. They view him as a "future Lisandro Martinez" and are determined to bring him to the Premier League, with Boca "expecting an offer" from Old Trafford.
Intriguingly, Boca are also fielding interest in midfielder Ezequiel Fernandez, who's "closely followed" by United's arch-rivals Liverpool. If Erik ten Hag's side activate Anselmino's release clause this year, though, then they may be powerless to keep hold of him.
Anselmino has had busy start at Boca Juniors
There's a limited amount of data available on Anselmino given that he's only made five first-team appearances so far, with his top-flight experience consisting of just two substitute appearances. He made the matchday squad for seven of the last eight games, hinting at a much bigger role next season, but for now the sample size is limited.
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However, the 18-year-old did start three games (against Racing Club, Estudiantes and Newell's Old Boys) in the Copa de la Liga, and we can perhaps draw some tentative conclusions from Anselmino's numbers in that tournament.
The main thing that jumps out is, even if it's unsurprising given the extent of interest from top teams, he is very precise in possession – he completed 85% of his passes overall, including an impressive 91% in his own half, which is fantastic for a young player at a high pressure club.
As for the defensive metrics, he won 75% of his ground duels and 56% of his aerial battles – a figure likely to improve as he develops physically – while averaging 2.7 tackles, 3.7 recoveries and 2.3 clearances. If a team is dominant, we may not see a high volume of these actions, but the teenager had plenty of work to do as he fought for two clean sheets (a goalless draw with Estudiantes and a 1-0 win over Newell's). We don't know if United will make an offer imminently or wait till he's played a few more games, but it certainly seems to be coming.