Rasmus H\u00f8jlund will leave Manchester United once the summer window opens, with his loan at Napoli becoming a permanent transfer after the Serie A side clinched Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n
Napoli\u2019s 3\u20130 victory at Pisa secured a top-four finish with one match remaining. H\u00f8jlund scored the third goal in stoppage time, a strike that triggered a $51.2 million (\u00a338.4 million) transfer that will be completed in the coming weeks. The deal means H\u00f8jlund will not return to Manchester United and avoids the uncertainty affecting Marcus Rashford\u2019s future at this moment in time.<\/p>\n
Antonio Conte has used H\u00f8jlund as his preferred No. 9 this season, a role made easier by Romelu Lukaku missing months through injury. The 23-year-old striker has scored 11 goals in Serie A and 15 in all competitions, one fewer than he managed for Manchester United in 2023\u201324.<\/p>\n
The fee represents a loss on United\u2019s initial 2023 outlay for the player from Atalanta, which began at $81.9 million. United will recoup just over 60% of that figure. The sale nonetheless brings a substantial sum into the club and clears a player who was regarded as surplus to requirements after Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko arrived.<\/p>\n
H\u00f8jlund posted on Instagram shortly after the final whistle:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis goal felt symbolic because it means two things. We now secured Champions League with Napoli, which means because of my contract I\u2019m now officially a Napoli player and I\u2019m saying goodbye to Manchester United,\u201d he wrote on Instagram . \u201cThat feels weird, because for the past year I already feel like a Napoli player. The way you fans supported me, made me feel like home and let me find my confidence again is something I\u2019m so grateful for.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say goodbye to Manchester United is something that kinda feels emotional too. My childhood dream came true by playing at Old Trafford in a red jersey. So the goal today symbolizes a new confident start, in which I will give everything for the time ahead to Napoli, and a thank you to all the fans, players and staff of Manchester United who made the dream I had as a kid come true. It\u2019s time for new dreams, so let\u2019s chase them.<\/p>\n
H\u00f8jlund\u2019s No. 9 shirt has not been worn since the final day of the 2024\u201325 Premier League season, a year and a week ago, and will soon be officially vacated. The club faces a decision over who, if anyone, will wear the No. 9 next season, though United are not expected to prioritise a striker in the upcoming market. Central midfield, left wing, left back and goalkeeper are higher priority positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rasmus H\u00f8jlund will complete a permanent move to Napoli after his stoppage-time goal and sealed it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,1028],"tags":[992,317],"class_list":["post-13869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd-transfer-news","category-napoli","tag-anthony-martial","tag-benjamin-sesko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}