Is ‘remarkable’ Andre Onana the perfect player for Erik ten Hag and Manchester United? Expert view

It could be the end of an era with regards to the Manchester United goalkeeping position with reports across English media suggesting the club will move on from former Spain international David de Gea and instead turn their attention to Andre Onana from Inter Milan.

De Gea, 32, has been at United since arriving from Atletico Madrid in 2011, making 545 appearances for the club.

Cameroon international Onana is five years younger at 27 and has been with Inter Milan since 2022, prior to that he was in the Barcelona academy and played for Dutch giants Ajax.

He is known as a ball-playing goalkeeper, a stark contrast to De Gea, who falls short compared to some modern goalkeepers in that area.

United manager Erik ten Hag favours a goalkeeper who is extremely comfortable with the ball at his feet so in order to find out whether or not Onana fits that bill we got in touch with Alessandro Brunetti from Eurosport Italy.

We started by asking Brunetti about Onana’s strengths as a goalkeeper.

“He is remarkable with the ball,” Brunetti begins.

“He plays with the ball at his feet with both great ease, and great quality. He is also equally comfortable using the ball with his right foot or his left foot.

“Moreover, he has a remarkable sense of calm, he is not afraid of anything, he always plays with a serene attitude at any level, no matter the level of the opponent.”

Brunetti says that if Onana has one weakness it is that he can be “a bit too keen at coming out of the box,” which can sometimes lead to him being in tricky situations.

When asked whether there is a player in the world he would compare Onana to, Brunetti replied “Ederson.”

He explains saying “Onana is perhaps not the best goalkeeper in the world in terms of reflexes or other skills for a goalkeeper (although he is still very good!) but he is one of the best playing the ball with the feet.

“He has the technique of a quality midfielder, in the same way that the Manchester City goalkeeper has.

“And because he has similar qualities to the player who is the goalkeeper for the Premier League champions I think he will have no problems adjusting to the Premier League.”

It is worth noting that Onana didn’t begin last season as a starter. He arrived short of match-sharpness having been left out of the Ajax squad when he announced he would join Inter on a free. This came after a nine-month suspension for testing positive for a banned substance.

It also didn’t help that he was coming in to replace Inter club legend Samir Handanovic, who wasn’t giving up the gloves without a fight.

Brunetti said: “Onana started on the bench because Handanovic was the captain of this team and had a lot of importance.

“He [Onana] started playing only in the Champions League matches before the World Cup, and in all these matches he showed all his qualities (as a goalkeeper and as a leader) so in the following months after the break Simone Inzaghi decided to promote him as first goalkeeper and Onana never looked back.”

What about the fee?

Reports have suggested that Inter Milan would want over €50 million to let Onana go and United might not be willing to meet that asking price.

It’s unclear exactly how much budget United have for this summer, but some reports have pegged it at around £100 million.

“Inter – but honestly all the Italian clubs – are facing a difficult period especially due financial issues,” explains Brunetti.

“Inter signed him last year as free agent, and now they can sell him one year later for €50-60m, a great deal in the end for an Italian club. It’s hard to say whether they will accept less than that fee but right now they are saying that they won’t.”