Manchester United have added 16-year-old winger Isaac Konde to their Under-18 group, with the move carrying a significance that stretches beyond one academy signing. It arrives amid the situation involving JJ Gabriel and also serves as another reminder of how uncommon direct movement between United and Liverpool remains.<\/p>\n
Konde turns 17 next month, when he will be eligible to sign his first professional contract. According to The Athletic, an overall five-year agreement has already been reached, a clear signal that United see both immediate potential and a longer development path for him.<\/p>\n
Direct switches between the two clubs have always been rare, particularly in youth football, and are virtually absent at senior level. Konde now joins a very short list of players to have made that leap.<\/p>\n
Ethan Ennis did it in 2021, leaving Liverpool for Manchester United at 16. He went on to reach United\u2019s Under-21s before leaving permanently this past summer for League One\u2019s Stockport County. Scott Wootton also made the same journey around his 16th birthday in 2007 and later played four first-team matches.<\/p>\n
A few others crossed when even younger. Charlie McNeill had a youth reputation built on scoring more than 600 goals. Born in Manchester, he had a brief link with Liverpool before joining United at about eight years old. Jack Harrison was seven when he was at Liverpool, then spent seven years in United\u2019s academy before later making his name in the United States and eventually playing 181 Premier League matches for Leeds and Everton.<\/p>\n
At senior level, no player has moved directly between the clubs for 62 years. The last was Phil Chisnall, a homegrown Manchester United forward who made 47 appearances and scored 10 goals. His opportunities diminished as George Best emerged, and he was offered the chance to join Liverpool in 1964.<\/p>\n
The rivalry itself took time to harden. In the earlier decades, the sporting edge we now associate with the fixture had not yet fully formed, even if the wider industrial tension already existed. By the 1970s, that had changed.<\/p>\n
Konde is not the only recent arrival from a rival academy. Central midfielder David Eze has joined United after leaving Manchester City, while last week Karim Cassim, also 17, arrived from City too. United have also seen James Scanlon and Habeeb Ogunneye leave for Arsenal, while Rio Ngumoha moved from Chelsea to Liverpool in 2024. JJ Gabriel\u2019s own route included Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham United before he moved out of London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United\u2019s Isaac Konde arrives from Liverpool in a move that recalls a very rare transfer pattern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1083],"tags":[180,182],"class_list":["post-20876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-man-utd","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20876","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=20876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}