{"id":634275,"date":"2024-01-19T04:03:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T09:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=634275"},"modified":"2024-01-19T04:03:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T09:03:20","slug":"manchester-united-tracking-bayer-leverkusen-odilon-kossounou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/19\/manchester-united-tracking-bayer-leverkusen-odilon-kossounou\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They Are Monitoring Him\u2019: Manchester United Interested in \u00a330M Bundesliga Star Who Could Partner Lisandro Martinez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United&#8217;s poor run of form has caused supporters to question the club&#8217;s backline. Andre Onana&#8217;s gaffes play into a weak showing from the defence, however, the four men in front of him are almost equally responsible. Erik ten Hag and the Manchester outfit appear to be tracking Bayer Leverkusen&#8217;s Odilon Kossounou whose acquisition could help limit the opposition&#8217;s scoring opportunities.<\/p>\n<h2>Red Devils Interested in Leverkusen Defender Odilon Kossounou<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udd34 News Odilon <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Kossounou?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Kossounou<\/a>: Due to his strong season with Leverkusen, he is on Manchester United&#39;s extended list! <\/p>\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f He\u2019s not not a top target but they are monitoring him \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MUFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MUFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udccdKossounou, key player for Alonso. Contract until 2026. One to watch for summer transfer window.\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qfpC8TCyI6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/qfpC8TCyI6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Plettigoal\/status\/1748040154009268303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Ivorian on Erik ten Hag\u2019s Extended List<\/h3>\n<p>Sky Sports Germany journalist <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Plettigoal\/status\/1748040154009268303?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Florian Plettenberg<\/a>, in a tweet Thursday evening, stated that Leverkusen defender Odilon Kossounou &#8220;is on Manchester United&#8217;s extended list.&#8221; The 23-year-old who can be deployed as a right-back or centre-back joined the German club in 2021 from Belgian outfit Club Brugge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/18\/manchester-united-dan-gore-potential-loan\/\" target=\"_self\">United Youngster \u2018Compared To Lionel Messi\u2019 Could Be Tempted With Old Trafford Departure<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Plettenberg noted that while Kossounou is not United&#8217;s top target, &#8220;they are monitoring him.&#8221; His current contract at Leverkusen runs until 2026. A summer transfer, if Xabi Alonso would be willing to allow his release, is what the Red Devils are considering. In the meantime, the Germans are contesting a tight title duel with perennial Bundesliga winners Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watch: <\/strong>COMPLETELY BROKEN? &#8211; Here&#8217;s Why Manchester United are on Life Support<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"COMPLETELY BROKEN? - Here&#039;s Why Manchester United are on Life Support\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ARZbbAG37s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Who is Odilon Kossounou?<\/h3>\n<p>The 23-year-old&#8217;s life was the subject of a Swedish football documentary that followed him from his home country of Ivory Coast to his first European club. \u00a0&#8220;Det Vackra Spelet,&#8221; Swedish for &#8220;The Beautiful Game,&#8221; would go on to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.11-mm.de\/index.php\/en\/news\/item\/1771-nominated-for-the-11mm-jury-award\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">nominated<\/a> for a film award. Following one season with Hammarby IF, Kossounou moved to Brugge and proceeded to win two league championships in Belgium<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/18\/signing-karim-benzema-manchester-united\/\" target=\"_self\">Why Signing Karim Benzema Makes Sense For Manchester United<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The defender&#8217;s current market value is estimated to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.us\/odilon-kossounou\/profil\/spieler\/644771\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a330 Million<\/a>. He has represented the Ivory Coast National Team for four consecutive years. At 1.91 m, the defender is an unmissable presence on the pitch. Should United manage to secure his signature, they will be gaining a capable footballer whose best football is still ahead of him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United&#8217;s poor run of form has caused supporters to question the club&#8217;s backline. Andre Onana&#8217;s gaffes play into a weak showing from the defence, however, the four men in front of him are almost equally responsible. Erik ten Hag and the Manchester outfit appear to be tracking Bayer Leverkusen&#8217;s Odilon Kossounou whose acquisition could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4764,"featured_media":634315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1705536000","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"Kossounou","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"300","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,3,7188],"tags":[7380,31718],"class_list":["post-634275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-manchester-united-transfer-rumours","tag-odilon-kossounou"],"modified_by":"Delight Wellington","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}