Manchester United’s Dutch centre-back has confirmed that Erik ten Hag was instrumental in his decision to choose the Red Devils as his new club when he left Bayern Munich.
One of Manchester United’s new faces for the 2024 season, Matthijs de Ligt spoke in an interview for the club about what made him decide to land at Old Trafford.
The 25-year-old joined from Bundesliga side Bayern Munich in the summer transfer window and said that the likes of Erik ten Hag, who he worked with at Ajax, was key to his decision to move to the Premier League.
“Yeah obviously he was (Ten Hag) a really important part because he knows me really well, I know him really well. He made me captain also at Ajax. Also at my time at Ajax he gave me a lot of confidence, he gave me a lot of motivation to try to lead the team,” he said.
“He demands, every day, every moment of the training session, he demands a lot. Not only on the training pitch, but also outside; how you behave, how you take care of your body, how you rest, how you sleep. And he’s really into discipline. That suits really well with the way I see being a professional footballer.”
According to the centre-back, the Red Devils boss was not the only reason for the move as he admitted that the opportunity to play in the Premier League also appealed to him and with those factors it was easy to make the decision.
“This summer when United came for me and, yeah, the trainer also wanted me really badly — and the club also — it made it, for me, really easy to get the chance to get to the Premier League first of all, and second of all to, I think, the biggest club in English football history. For me, it was a really easy choice to make.”