Awab Hassan officially signs for Manchester United

With only two weeks left of Premier League football, attention is starting to turn to the summer, with the 2026 World Cup and the summer transfer window ahead of us.

As such, The Red Devils are laying down plans for new signings, targeting three new midfield players, a left-winger and a full-back.

However, Manchester United’s recruitment operation continues to extend its reach into the grassroots game, with the club confirmed this week as the destination for one of nine young players moving out of a single Greater Manchester academy programme.

The announcement was made by SK Football Club, in a post documenting the end-of-season transitions of an entire Under-8s cohort into the professional academy system.

Nine players from one age group at the club have been offered academy opportunities this summer.

SK FC themselves described the number of signed stars as a remarkable achievement for a single cohort, and one which underlines the volume of organised grassroots pathways now feeding into the EFL and Premier League academy structures across the region.

Manchester United have secured one of those nine, with Awab Hassan joining the United academy from SK FC’s Under-8 Reds.

The remaining eight players from the cohort have moved to a spread of clubs across the wider region, with Stockport County signing five in what is comfortably the largest single intake from the group.

United are the only Premier League club among the destinations, as others from Hassan’s group have joined Huddersfield Town, Crewe Alexandra and Port Vale.

Hassan’s signing has emerged via SK FC’s own social channels rather than a formal Manchester United announcement, which is consistent with the club’s standard practice at the youngest academy levels.

Recruitment at this stage of the pathway is rarely communicated through official channels, with the news typically reaching the public via the releasing club, the player’s family, or the coaching network they have come through.

Now, Awab Hassan sits at the very earliest stage of his journey through the United academy ranks.