Two years after getting just two appearances during a loan spell at Nottingham Forest, Andrey Santos has found his way to Old Trafford. Manchester United announced the signing of the Brazilian midfielder from Chelsea on Tuesday, with the deal reportedly valued at up to $65 million.
The 22-year-old signed a five-year contract with a club option for an additional season. He called United “a special club” in his first comments and said he’s looking forward to learning from Michael Carrick, the former United midfielder now on the coaching staff.
A Second Chance After a Rough Start in England
Santos first arrived in English football when Chelsea paid Vasco da Gama $21 million for him in 2023. The plan was for him to develop at Nottingham Forest that season, but things went sideways fast. He started and played 89 minutes in a 1-0 Carabao Cup loss to Burnley in August 2023, then came off the bench in a 3-0 Premier League defeat at Liverpool in October. That was it. Forest cut the loan short.
From there, Santos spent time at Strasbourg, another club in the Chelsea ownership group, before returning to Stamford Bridge last season. He ultimately made 47 appearances across all competitions for the Blues, but it never quite clicked.
United’s Midfield Gets a Shake-Up
This move feels like a direct response to United missing out on Elliot Anderson. Manchester City beat them to the 22-year-old midfielder, who left Forest for a British-record $150 million. Santos is a different kind of player, more of a box-to-box engine than Anderson’s creative flair, but the urgency was the same.
Santos described the atmosphere at United as “ambitious” and said the squad is built to compete for major trophies. Whether he’s ready for that pressure right away is another question. He’s still raw, still adapting to the Premier League’s pace, and his only real stretch of consistent minutes came in Ligue 1 with Strasbourg.
But the raw talent has always been there. He’s strong on the ball, reads the game well for his age, and has shown flashes of being able to dictate tempo. Carrick’s involvement could be key here — the former United midfielder carved out a career by being positionally smart and making the simple pass look inevitable. If anyone can teach Santos the art of control, it’s him.
United fans will be watching closely. The price tag isn’t cheap, but in today’s market, a 22-year-old with Santos’s pedigree and international experience (he’s already earned Brazil caps) feels like a calculated gamble rather than a reach.
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