Andre Onana is on the verge of returning to Trabzonspor on loan, just one season after helping the Turkish side lift their first cup in six years. The deal is 90% done, sources say, with no option to buy — leaving Manchester United with an increasingly thin goalkeeping department as pre-season approaches.
Onana, a £47.2m signing from Inter Milan in 2023, made 29 appearances for Trabzonspor last season after being loaned out in the wake of United's shock EFL Cup defeat on penalties at League Two Grimsby last August — his only United match of the campaign. He ended that loan by lifting the Turkish Cup for the first time since 2020.
“Andre Onana is 90% certain to rejoin Trabzonspor on loan, leaving Man Utd with a goalkeeper shortage before pre-season.”
The 30-year-old still has two years left on his United contract and had been scheduled to return for pre-season training on 9 July. But he knew there was no chance of ousting Senne Lammens as head coach Michael Carrick's first choice. With Lammens away at the World Cup with Belgium, United's number two Altay Bayindir facing an uncertain future, and promising youngster Radek Vitek hoping to secure a move before training starts, Carrick could be left with inexperienced goalkeepers and veteran Tom Heaton for the opening friendly against Wrexham in Helsinki on 17 July.
United have never been afraid to make statement signings — from the £3.75m that landed Roy Keane in 1993, smashing the club record, to the £7m that brought Andy Cole from Newcastle in 1995, again breaking the British record. But Onana's impending exit underscores a different kind of transfer story: one of a record signing reduced to a temporary solution, with two years still on his contract.