Lammens joins Man Utd from Royal Antwerp

Senne Lammens (pictured with Jason Wilcox) is yet to make a senior appearance for Belgium

Manchester United have signed Belgian goalkeeper Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp for an initial 21m euros (£18.1m) plus add-ons.

Lammens, 23, who is yet to win a senior cap for his country, arrives at Old Trafford on a five-year contract.

"I am extremely proud to be joining Manchester United. It is a real dream come true," said Lammens.

"The past few years have been an amazing journey, it's now ended in an incredible destination and hopefully the beginning of something special."

Lammens has made 64 appearances for Royal Antwerp and helped them win the Belgian Super Cup in 2023.

He was named in the Belgium national team squad for the first time in March.

United's director of football Jason Wilcox added: "Senne is an excellent young goalkeeper with great potential.

"We are delighted that he has chosen to join Manchester United after significant interest from a number of clubs."

Once a deal for Lammens was in motion, United ended their interest in Aston Villa's number one, Emiliano Martinez, 32, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022 and represented a more experienced and Premier-League proven option.

Lammens' arrival at Old Trafford comes with the club keen to address obvious problems in their goalkeeping department.

Turkey's Altay Bayindir has made errors in the Premier League and last season's number one Andre Onana was at fault for a goal in their EFL Cup exit to League Two side Grimsby.

Neither have convinced since joining the club in 2023, during the same summer in which United allowed David de Gea to leave as a free agent and sold England international Dean Henderson to Crystal Palace.

The club's current third choice Tom Heaton, 39, has not made a senior appearance for United since 1 February, 2023.

Who is Senne Lammens?

Lammens joined Antwerp on a free transfer from Club Brugge in 2023 and has played for Belgium from Under-15 through to Under-21 level.

While he has featured in his country's senior squad he was not included by boss Rudi Garcia for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan with Chelsea's Mike Penders, 20, who is on-loan at Strasbourg, called up for the first time.

Last season, Lammens made 30 appearances in the Belgian Pro League, keeping seven clean sheets and making 173 saves.

That was 20 more than any other goalkeeper in Europe's top-10 leagues, while no player saved more penalties than his four.

Prior to his move, Lammens was left out of the Antwerp squad for back-to-back Belgian Pro-League games against KV Mechelen and KVC Westerlo.

'Lammens convinced he can become Man Utd number one'

Axel Brisart, journalist from Belgian newspaper HLN

He is one of the biggest goalkeeping talents in Belgium and is usually part of the national team and I think he is convinced he is ready and can become Manchester United's new number one.

Last season was his first season as number one at Royal Antwerp and he played every game and showed himself to be a great all-round goalkeeper with great qualities.

His shot-stopping is his biggest quality. He made some great saves and has great reflexes on the line. His team-mates say he has made some incredible saves in training.

He is very pro-active and likes to come for the ball. He has great feet and his passing is a really big weapon for any team to put some tempo into their play.

Sometimes he takes a risk when he comes for a high ball. With more experience he will get better. He is ready for the Premier League but we were expecting him to move somewhere like Sunderland or West Ham. But this is a step he wanted to take.

Senne has the maturity and big confidence in himself but you cannot compare the pressure he has experienced at Royal Antwerp with what he will have at Manchester United.

Analysis: Man Utd have got 'a serious shot-stopper'

It is easy to see why United opted to sign Lammens on pure data alone.

He excelled in his first full top-flight season as Antwerp qualified for the Uefa Conference League and both his save percentage and passing accuracy were higher than that of Andre Onana in 2024-25.

His underlying numbers are even more impressive and suggest that the Belgian can make an instant impact at Old Trafford during this campaign.

His goals prevented total of 18.4 is outrageous.

Opta calculate this number by subtracting expected goals on target from goals conceded (excluding own goals), meaning Lammens has kept out almost 19 more goals than we would expect from an average goalkeeper.

Put simply, he's a serious shot-stopper.

For context, Crystal Palace's Dean Henderson was the Premier League's most efficient last season for goals prevented with a tally of 4.4.

James Trafford kept a record-equalling 29 Championship clean sheets at Burnley and his total was 12.85.