Man Utd nearing transfer of ace first spotted by Ronaldinho's ex-agent

Ronaldinho shares something in common with one of Manchester United's key transfer targets

Matheus Cunha has already had a football career across five countries - and his big break in the sport came thanks to the former agent of his idol Ronaldinho. The Wolves star is coming off the best season of his career, where he scored 17 goals in 36 appearances, with 15 of those strikes coming in the Premier League. With his impressive performances and consistent end product has come intense transfer interest from clubs with Manchester United leading the way to sign the Brazil international. Ruben Amorim's side have had positive contact with Cunha's camp over the summer move and intend to trigger his release clause of £62.5million ($83.7m) release clause, according to The Athletic. Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT

With United - who finished 15th this season - said to make the payment for Cunha across five years, the Black Country side require the fee to be paid across three instalments and in the next two years, as per his contract. Despite the disagreement between the two sides, there is hope that a deal can be agreed that will see the forward make the move to Old Trafford.

The 26-year-old is not averse to a move away with Cunha having already played for five clubs in four countries. It was in 2017 that the then-Coritiba youth talent was discovered by Eric Lovey who had served in the role of representative of the Secretary General of FIFA.

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But what would have been more of interest to Cunha regarding Lovey's football CV is that he used to be the advisor and agent of Ronaldinho - the Brazilian great that the Wolves ace has long described as his sporting idol. Lovey was a friend of FC Sion president Christian Constantin and made the Swiss architect known to Cunha's talent which saw him make the move to Europe for the first time in his career.

Matheus Cunha has said Ronaldinho is his idol

"As soon as I heard about him I wanted to follow his performances,” Lovey told Swiss newspaper Blick in 2018. During the Nike Cup in the USA he confirmed all the good things I had heard, especially against the Manchester United youth team. "He was able to get the better of English players who were already adult-sized. I wasn’t there myself but hearing about how he played reinforced my desire to work with him." Cunha impressed heavily in Switzerland and was there for just a single season with RB Leipzig came knocking in 2018. However, the Brazilian failed to replicate the same form he showed at Sion in the Bundesliga as he scored just nine goals in 52 games for the club before leaving for Hertha BSC a year and a half later.

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