Manchester United are prioritising a move for RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko if they sign a striker this summer.

The Old Trafford club have made informal contact with their Bundesliga counterparts after Sesko emerged as their preferred option.

Newcastle United are also targeting the 22-year-old as their top candidate. That interest comes amid Alexander Isak wanting to leave St James’ Park and has accelerated the actions of Manchester United.

RB Leipzig are seeking a fee of €75million plus add-ons as well as a sell-on percentage for any deal for Sesko.

Ruben Amorim’s side also admire Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins and have explored the costs of both potential deals.

Villa told United early in the window that the 29-year-old is not for sale and are adamant he is staying. The United hierarchy is reluctant to pay what they thought it may have taken for Villa to consider doing business.

United have already added two attacking reinforcements this summer with Matheus Cunha arriving from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bryan Mbeumo joining from Brentford. They previously held an interest in Sesko before his move to Red Bull Salzburg but, back in 2019, United viewed a €2million price as excessive.

Sesko’s Leipzig deal runs until 2029, having signed a new contract last year. When he signed that new deal, it came with the understanding that if an elite club — by his definition — offered in the region of €80m-€90m (£69m to £78m), Leipzig would allow him to leave.

The Slovenia international joined Leipzig in 2023 from Red Bull Salzburg, with both clubs owned by the Red Bull GmbH conglomerate. He has made 87 appearances for Leipzig, scoring 39 goals and providing eight assists.

He made his senior Slovenia debut the day after his 18th birthday and has scored 16 goals in 41 games, representing his nation at the 2024 European Championship.

Additional reporting: Seb Stafford-Bloor and Adam Crafton

United going for potential over known entity

Analysis by Manchester United correspondent Laurie Whitwell

United’s decision to go for Sesko over Watkins is fascinating in so many ways. This will be the more expensive of the deals, but would bring in a young player to complement the more established Premier League signings in Cunha and Mbeumo. United will hope he develops into the world-class striker he has shown promise to be.

United have years of scouting on him. They first looked at signing Sesko as a 16-year-old from Domzale in 2019, but failed to match the €2million fee agreed by Salzburg. They also held conversations in 2022 but Sesko preferred to agree to move to Leipzig for his pathway. United also made an approach last summer before signing Joshua Zirkzee, but Sesko opted to stay.

Watkins scored 16 goals in 38 league games last term (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

United are planning to make it fourth time lucky, but Sesko will cost a lot more than the price from six years ago. Figuring out how United afford that will come down to sales yet to be realised, and hard negotiations with Leipzig are expected. Rasmus Hojlund’s future will come into sharper focus.

Christopher Vivell, United’s director of recruitment, is influential on this proposed transfer. He was at Salzburg and Leipzig in executive roles when the Sesko deals were agreed, and has advocated for United making another move now.

Watkins represents as guaranteed a Premier League option as possible, but United are going for a player who could spend a decade at the club if all goes well.

How did Sesko do in 2024-25?

Analysis by German football writer Seb Stafford-Bloor

Reasonably well, but it was not the season he needed to produce to assuage the doubts.

While his overall level of performance improved in the broader sense, with Sesko becoming more connected with the rest of the Leipzig side, his goalscoring numbers were down. He scored one fewer Bundesliga goal (13) in 2024-25 than he did the year before, despite playing almost an extra 900 minutes. He was never able to replicate that seven-game streak from the previous year, either, meaning that it felt underwhelming as a result, despite some eye-catching goals (particularly against Bayern Munich at the Red Bull Arena).

But Leipzig had a bad season. They sacked Marco Rose in March, limped to their lowest finish since being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2016 and only won one game of their eight Champions League games.

That’s valuable context. Nevertheless, consistency was still an issue for Sesko and the gap between his best performances and his worst, which is a historic criticism, remains too wide.

(Top photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images)