Man United beat off competition from rivals Liverpool to land Leny Yoro, 18, as £52m defender heads to England to complete medical

Leny Yoro is flying to the UK to complete his medical ahead of signing for Manchester United.

The 18-year-old defender has been one of United's keenest recent targets in the position, and the Red Devils have been forced to fend off interest from a range of other clubs.

Real Madrid , Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain were also thought to be interested in making a move for the talented teenager, who had been yet to make a decision on his future.

Mail Sport reported last week that United had tabled a bid that Lille were keen to move forward with, as the club prepares to move quickly to complete their transfer business ahead of next season.

Now, however, Yoro is heading to Manchester, despite waiting on a bid from Real Madrid, which was his preferred destination.

Yoro had been waiting on Madrid to match United's bid, but Lille pushed the defender to join the Red Devils with the Champions League winners unwilling to pay the fee.

He was Liverpool's prime target, to, but the Reds are understood to have been convinced he only wanted to move to Spain.

Madrid were believed to be more interested in waiting to recruit the 18-year-old next summer when he would have become a free agent, which in turn will saw Lille push to get United's deal over the line sooner rather than later. 

Alongside Yoro, Man United are also targeting defenders Jarrad Branthwaite of Everton and Bayern Munich's Matthijs de Ligt in a bid to bolster their ranks during this summer's window.

This transfer period has already seen the club raise funds to aid future deals with the selling of academy graduate Willy Kambwala to Villarreal and Mason Greenwood - whose £30m move to Marseille has been agreed in principal.

United welcomed their first major recruit to Old Trafford on Sunday, with the signing of Netherlands international Joshua Zirkzee for £36.5m from Bologna.