Swedish defender joins Man Utd from Benfica

Manchester June 15 (IANS) English Premier League (EPL) giant Manchester United have completed signing defender Victor Lindelof from Portuguese football league title holders Benfica.

The club s website declared the signing of the 22-year-old in a statement released on Wednesday.

Manchester United head coach Jose Mourinho was delighted with their first summer signing and said that the 22-year-old Sweden international will add depth to the squad.

Victor is a very talented young player who has a great future ahead of him at United. Our season last year showed us that we need options and quality to add depth to the squad and Victor is the first to join us this summer. I know that our fantastic group of players will welcome him as one of us he was quoted as saying by the official website of Manchester United.

Lindelof arrived in Manchester after Sweden s 1-1 draw with Norway on Tuesday in which he was an unused substitute.

I am thrilled to be joining Manchester United. I have enjoyed my time at Benfica enormously and I have learned a lot there. But I m looking forward to playing in the Premier League at Old Trafford and for Jose Mourinho.

I m keen to get started and make my contribution to the team s efforts to win more trophies he said.

Lindelöf began his senior career with Swedish club Västerås SK making his debut in September 2010.

He moved to Benfica in December 2011 initially representing the club at youth and B levels. He made his first team debut for the multiple Portugal league champions in September 2013 going on to make 48 appearances over the next four years.

Lindelöf has represented Sweden at under-17 under-19 under-21 and senior levels. He was a member of the under-21 side that won the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

He made his senior international debut in March last year and was part of the Sweden squad at UEFA Euro 2016 in France where he started all three of their group games.

--IANS
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