Andre Onana was at Inter Milan's goal in the Champions League final against Manchester City. Cameroonian goalkeeper from Inter Milan for £44m.
Onana has signed a five-year contract until June 2028 with the option of a further one year extension. Inter will receive an additional €4m based on the goalkeeper's success at Old Trafford.
Onana was United's first choice to replace David de Gea, who left as a free agent late last month after 12 years at the club.
Onana, 27, is already flying to the US to join his new United teammates in the first leg of the pre-season tour in New Jersey. He could make his debut in Saturday's friendly against Arsenal at the Metlife Stadium if he gets international clearance in time.
«Coming to Manchester United is an incredible honor and I have worked hard all my life to get to this point, overcoming many obstacles along the way,» Onana said.
«Coming to Old Trafford to defend our goal and contribute to the team will be another amazing experience. This is the start of a new journey for me, with new teammates and new ambitions to fight for.”
New Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana chooses shirt number 24 instead of number 1. Huge talent and strong personality — new United goalkeeper
Onana has previously stated that if he weren't a goalkeeper, he would probably become a police officer. «I like to defend myself,» he said, although this only points to part of the Cameroonian's skills.
Onana also loves to play – often with a confidence that few goalkeepers today can match – and it was largely because of his ball handling that Erik ten Hag called his former No. 1 at Ajax the perfect person to replace the departed De Gea at Manchester United.
One of the brightest aspects of the FA Cup and Champions League. Last month's final was the difference between the two goalkeepers facing Manchester City.
While De Gea's limitations were on full display during United's woeful 2-1 defeat at Wembley, Inter Milan's success in breaking City's usual rhythm and going over to Pep Guardiola's side owed a lot to Onana's poise, accuracy and positioning in possession in Istanbul.
In a UEFA technical report on the final, which City won 1-0, Roberto Martínez, the former international manager of Wigan, Everton and Belgium and now in charge of Portugal, suggested that the Inter goalkeeper played less as a sweeper than as a defensive midfielder. This opinion is shared by Guardiola himself. «Onana played like a defensive midfielder — he was in the defensive midfield position,» the City manager said. «We fought it.»
Onana caught the eye at Inter last season. Photo: Reuters/Alberto Lingria
Onana often took front positions ahead of his centre-backs, essentially acting as a support midfielder from which he helped Inter build the game. The final was one of five matches in Inter's Champions League campaign in which he completed 30 or more passes, and one in particular in the 72nd minute epitomized his qualities and impact. After driving the ball low into Lautaro Martinez in their own half, Onana took out six City players through the first two lines of pressure to set up a 3-on-3 attack and create a chance for Romelu Lukaku.
It was far from an isolated moment. Take, for example, his needle pass between Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish to the feet of Marcelo Brozovic at the end of the first half, which completely missed City's first pressing line, and it's easy to see why Guardiola said it was so difficult to form an effective, cohesive high pressing against a team with such a goalkeeper.
The contrast with De Gea at Wembley — and in general — could not be more stark and highlights why Ten Hag felt he couldn't last another season with the Spaniard in goal. This was originally the plan, but De Gea's turbulent end to the season, including setbacks in defeats to Sevilla and West Ham, forced him to undergo a complete reassessment and led Ten Hag to decide that a new goalkeeper was as much a priority as a new centre-forward. De Gea was partly to blame for Ilkay Gundogan's winning goal, but the game also showed how much of a hindrance he was to Ten Hag's desire to play from behind.
De Gea passed the ball 20 times, ending the match with 49% passing accuracy, notable for the number of aimless long shots he landed on the field. However, for most of last season, the sight of De Gea, invariably pinned to his line, torn apart by self-doubt with the ball at his feet and feared by others, was commonplace, and even the Premier League Golden Glove award for most clean sheets couldn't hide it.
The game has advanced and De Gea has been left behind in this regard, but if he represents the analogue era, Onana is at the forefront of the digital movement and goalkeeper Ten Hag is convinced he will play a significant role in the evolution of United's style of play under his leadership. It's not that Onana's career hasn't been without controversy or issues.
In February 2021, while still at Ajax under Ten Hag, Onana was suspended for a year by UEFA after failing a drug test four months earlier. The Court of Arbitration for Sport later reduced the suspension to nine months, which found no «substantial fault.»
Onana' earned a growing reputation at Ajax. Photo: AP/Frank Augstein
Onana woke up with a headache after returning home in the early morning after a European match against Atalanta in Italy and took what he thought was paracetamol from the first aid kit in his kitchen. However, later it turned out that instead of Litakold, Onan accidentally took a diuretic based on furosemide, a prohibited substance that was prescribed to his wife after childbirth. Onana expressed his deep disappointment at the stigma associated with his doping ban, and in an interview recalled being stopped by the police in Belgium and overhearing one of the officers who recognized him say to a colleague, «This guy takes a lot of drugs.»
However, the way he came to his senses after such a long absence of the opportunity to play, speaks of the strength of his character. Born in the tiny village of Nkol Ngoc in Cameroon, he was discovered in a competition organized by the Samuel Eto'o Foundation in Yaoundé and recommended by Barcelona, who signed him at 14. Leaving home at such a young age was a key formative experience and he joined Ajax four years later. Even for a club that is known for wanting its players to play bravely from behind, some at Ajax were unconvinced by Onan, worried that he was taking too many risks and being too eccentric. However, Edwin van der Sar, the former Ajax goalkeeper, saw something special and steadfastly pushed for the club to sign him, despite the misgivings of some scouts.
It would have been a smart investment as Onana played a crucial role in Ajax's journey to the first Eredivisie title under Ten Hag in 2018-19 and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League that season, when they lost to Spurs under dramatic circumstances.
>Onana has never forgotten the support of van der Sar — the man he calls his football «godfather» — and was shocked and saddened by the news this month that the former Ajax chief executive suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and is being treated in hospital.
Onana's position among other goalkeepers was reflected when Manuel Neuer, goalkeeper for Bayern Munich and the German national team, sent him a video , praising his and Ajax's form in 2019, and called himself «Onana's biggest fan». That reputation has only grown over the past year after an impressive debut season with Inter that convinced Ten Hag Onan to reach even greater heights.
His former Cameroon team-mate Gaetan Bong believes Onana can play as well as Alisson and Ederson, the Brazilian goalkeepers at Liverpool and Manchester City respectively, but says United fans may need to take a deep breath sometimes watching him in action. “Despite the fact that I sometimes played with him, I was a little scared!” Bong told Sky Sports. “Fans should be ready to have a goalkeeper who can play. If you look at Man City and Liverpool who have goalkeepers who make mistakes and take risks, managers stand up for goalkeepers because they know the quality, nothing changes and there is no doubt about it. André has the quality and the potential and with United he can reach the level of Alisson and Ederson.
United get not only a talented goalkeeper but also a strong personality who is not afraid to speak his mind. Onana has stated that there is a misconception that black goalkeepers make too many mistakes and that, as a result, they need to work harder than their white counterparts to reach the top of European football. Last December, he announced his retirement from international football after falling out with Cameroon head coach Rigobert Song at the World Cup. Song stated that Onan asked not to play in his country's second group match against Serbia.
Whether he will return to play for Cameroon in the future remains to be seen, but with Onana in goal, United's life is unlikely to be boring.
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