Manchester United Reject Barcelona's Interest in Sesko

Barcelona’s search for a new No 9 has taken them to Old Trafford. Manchester United’s response has been blunt.

Reports in Spain placed Benjamin Sesko on a Barcelona shortlist as they weigh up successors to Robert Lewandowski, who is set to leave the club after four years at the Nou Camp. The Catalan side have been working on a deal for Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid, but with no agreement in place, alternative names have inevitably started to surface.

Sesko is one of them. So is Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy. There has even been talk that Atletico could pivot to Sesko if Alvarez does move on.

United are having none of it.

Club sources have dismissed the idea of selling the Slovenian striker after just one season in Manchester. Sesko cost £73million when he arrived from RB Leipzig last summer and, after a slow bedding-in period, he finished the campaign looking every inch a long-term centre-forward.

He scored 12 goals in 32 appearances across all competitions, 11 of them in the Premier League. The numbers behind that tally matter: one league goal every 149 minutes, and involvement in all but one of the 31 league fixtures for which he was available.

The minutes were not always from the start. Sesko made only 17 league starts and was in the XI for just six of Michael Carrick’s 17 matches in charge. Yet that is when his season truly caught fire. Seven of his 12 goals came after Carrick replaced Ruben Amorim in January, a surge that underlined why United see him as the man to lead their line.

On the training ground, Carrick and first-team coach Travis Binnion have built a strong working relationship with the 23-year-old. Sesko has invested heavily in individual sessions to sharpen his movement, link play and penalty-box instincts. United believe they are only seeing the first layer of his potential.

That belief has hardened into policy. With Rasmus Hojlund completing a permanent move to Napoli for £38million, United view Sesko as their clear long-term No 9, not a tradeable asset to fund a rebuild.

Barcelona can keep drawing up lists. For now, Sesko’s name is staying exactly where United want it: at the top of their own teamsheet.