Man Utd agree £74m deal for Leipzig striker Sesko

At 6ft 5in, Benjamin Sesko would bring significant presence to Manchester United's frontline

Manchester United have agreed a deal worth £73.7m with RB Leipzig to sign Slovenia striker Benjamin Sesko.

The agreement includes a guaranteed payment of £66.3m with the remainder in add-ons.

Sesko will now complete the formalities, including a medical on Friday, before finalising his move to Old Trafford.

The 22-year-old, who was also wanted by Newcastle, has scored 39 goals in 87 appearances for the German side.

United have already signed forwards Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo this summer for a combined fee of about £130m.

Those payments have been arranged in a favourable way to allow United to keep spending, while the entirety of Marcus Rashford's £325,000-a-week salary is being covered by his loan move to Barcelona.

United also received £5m from Chelsea after the Blues pulled out of a deal to sign Jadon Sancho.

And United want a further £50m for Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho, who is attracting interest from Chelsea and has been told he can leave Old Trafford this summer.

Their main striker from last season, Rasmus Hojlund, has been made available for sale for £40m after scoring just 14 Premier League goals in two seasons.

Sesko's decision to move to Old Trafford is a further blow to Newcastle, who missed out on Hugo Ekitike to Liverpool and face seeing their main striker Alexander Isak potentially join him at Anfield.

Since moving to Germany, Sesko is the top scorer currently aged under 23 in all competitions, of players based in Europe's top five leagues - with 39 goals in 87 games.

He is one ahead of Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham and five clear of Florian Wirtz, who joined Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen for £100m this summer.

Sesko is big, strong, quick, good in the air and a fine finisher, and has been compared to Erling Haaland - and not just because they both played for RB Salzburg.

He was one of the fastest strikers in the Bundesliga at 35.7km/h - and had the best aerial success rate of strikers involved in at least 60 of them.