YPT news

Manchester United have agreed a deal with Burnley to sign 14-year-old starlet John Cofie.

One of Steve Cotterill's last acts as Burnley manager was to fend off a reported $600,000 bid from Liverpool for the striker, who was spotted by the Clarets at a youth tournament in Germany.

However, with Cofie, a German-born Ghanaian who has also been coveted by Chelsea, refusing to return for training with the Turf Moor outfit, his departure was inevitable and a meeting of the Burnley hierarchy agreed United was the best place for the youngster to continue his development.

Although it will be three years before Cofie can even sign professional terms for United, Burnley have driven a hard bargain, gaining agreement from the Red Devils to face them in a friendly, plus a 25% sell-on clause and first refusal should the teenager leave Old Trafford on loan.

"The player was unwilling to come back to Burnley so we didn't have a choice in keeping him here," Burnley operational director Brendan Flood told www.burnleyfootballclub.co.uk

"He was going to go to one of the clubs chasing his signature and in the end, we all felt that Manchester United was the right option.

"He has a good future ahead of him and hopefully we can try and keep youngsters of John's quality at the club in future."

The deal comes in a week when Sir Alex Ferguson re-stated his commitment to producing young talent, claiming he was happy to abide by new FIFA rules which set down specific limits for the number of non domestically-raised players each team can have in their squads.

Source: au.fourfourtwo.com