Man United star eyed for transfer to Turkish giants as club won’t activate clause

Manchester United defender Raphael Varane is reportedly a transfer target for Galatasaray ahead of the summer as he nears the end of his contract at Old Trafford.

The experienced Frenchman has struggled to show his best form during his time at Man Utd, and it seems the Red Devils will therefore not be triggering the clause that could extend his contract with the club for a further year.

This has led to interest from Galatasaray, according to Milliyet, so it will be interesting to see if Varane fancies a move to Turkey at this stage of his career.

With United opting not to keep Varane, there will surely be plenty of options for him in Europe and elsewhere, with Todo Fichajes also recently reporting on his future, stating that he could return to La Liga, where a number of clubs are interested in him.

Varane transfer: Could Man Utd defender return to France?

Another option for Varane could be a return to his native France, where he hasn’t played for a long time due to spending so much of his senior career in Spain with Real Madrid.

Galatasaray will no doubt hope to change his mind, but could a reunion with his first club Lens be seen as the most tempting way for him to end his career?

Discussing Varane’s future with CaughtOffside earlier this season, French football expert Jonathan Johnson said: “We’ve seen an interesting scenario develop at Manchester United, who have decided not to trigger the option to extend Raphael Varane’s contract by another year, instead hoping to get him to agree to a new deal on reduced wages. I can’t see United and Varane agreeing altered terms, so I suspect at this point that we’re probably about to see his last few months at Old Trafford if he doesn’t get a move this January.

“There have been links with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and I can confirm that these are real. We know that Bayern looked at Jerome Boateng a few months ago and then decided against that move, but they could still do with cover in defence. As already mentioned, Real Madrid might favour someone like Yoro over Varane, who would be more of a stop-gap solution, but the link isn’t too surprising given his past success with the club and the fact that he reported still has a house in Madrid.

“For the long term, there have been links with Saudi Arabia, but one to keep on sooner rather than later could also be his former club Lens. Varane has already retired from international duty and has been very vocal about how he feels players are being run into the ground from playing too many games. He’s not someone who really strikes me as a player who’s going to look to have a really long career, and so it wouldn’t surprise me if he wanted to finish his career off where it started at Lens.

“I could see him re-joining Lens for maybe a season or two and then possibly even calling it a day.”