Sekou Kone’s biggest challenge before making Manchester United debut explained

Sekou Kone joined Manchester United in the summer transfer window and there are high hopes for the talented midfielder.

Kone, 18, was a surprise signing for Manchester United on last summer’s deadline day, arriving from Guidars FC for a reported fee of around £1 million.

The teenager’s arrival generated excitement among United fans, despite many knowing little about the Mali youth international.

Since joining, Kone has made only a few appearances for the youth teams, as the club adopts a cautious approach to his integration.

Kone returns to action for United

The 18-year-old midfielder suffered an injury setback in November and made his return to the pitch in an Under-21s game against Aston Villa on the weekend.

He played 79 minutes in that clash and it was the first time he had been on the pitch for United in a game for longer than 45 minutes.

The youngster followed that up with a 60-minute display in the Under-21’s 3-1 defeat to FC Nordsjælland on Tuesday evening.

Despite the loss, Kone’s ability on the ball was evident, with the 18-year-old able to skip past opponents and often made the right decision with his passing.

But Kone is still getting used to the intensity levels required in United’s youth side. Injury and a lack of a pre-season have also impacted that.

There are high hopes for the young talent and reports have suggested that he could be given the chance to try and impress Ruben Amorim in pre-season.

Kone’s biggest United challenge

United’s Under-21s boss Travis Binnion believes that Kone’s biggest challenge before he makes that step up to the first-team is to build his fitness up further to match his teammates and the opposition.

“I think he’s found tonight really hard,” Binnion said on Tuesday night. “He played 75 minutes on Saturday and he’ll go again against Brighton. We’re getting games into him and training into him.

“Listen, he’s a good player [and] he’s going to be a really good player. He’s still getting to grips with the language, the intensity, the positional stuff, and his own fitness.

Read More: Godwill Kukonki sends message to Sekou Kone after making return for Manchester United U21s

“You can see tonight that some of their players are fitter than him, some of our players are fitter than him, and that can’t be right in time. In time, he’s got to be everywhere on the pitch and finding it easy physically at this level.

“That’s the challenge of where we’ve got to get to and we will get there, he will get there. But [it is] just nice to see him training, playing and keep building on things.”

Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is released every Wednesday at 6 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.