Manchester United youngster Teden Mengi has been promoted to the club’s first-team ahead of the team’s crucial Premier League opener against Crystal Palace this weekend.
Mengi, 18, has spent his entire career at United and has since gone onto climb the club’s famous youth ranks all the way to now force his way into manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first-team plans.
The talented defender has featured a total of 19 times for United’s under-23s squad and made his first-team debut in the Europa League against LASK back in August last year.
However, according to Manchester Evening News the exciting defender has been promoted to the club’s first team indefinitely after his withdrawal from the under-23s squad on Monday who faced Leicester City in the Premier League 2.
MEN’s report goes onto claim that the youngster has had his shirt number upgraded from 71 to 43 and is expected to fill the gap current first-team defenders Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo leave after being forced to train alone ahead of their impending summer departures.
Mengi could be in line to feature on Saturday when his side kick off their 2020-21 Premier League campaign against Palace after getting 30 minutes under his belt last weekend in the Reds’ pre-season friendly against Aston Villa.
Solskjaer’s decision to continue Mengi’s already impressive development comes in light of his recent comments comparing the young Englishman to leading Juventus centre-back Matthijs de Ligt.
Speaking live on BBC Radio 5 Live, as quoted by Manchester Evening News the Norweigan said: “We always had that in the back of our minds that our academy will provide players and Teden has definitely impressed me. It’s different trusting defenders on the big stage, of course it is.
“You’ve got to make sure he’s ready for it, you see examples of Ajax, who play in a different league but Matthijs de Ligt, they made him captain when he was 18. You can see something special in them.
“Teden’s got something special in him. It’s about picking the right moment to give him a chance.”
