Premier League giants wary of joining race for Ajax defender De Ligt due to his agent Raiola

Premier League clubs are reportedly reluctant to join the race for £50million rated Ajax defender Matthijs De Ligt due to his agent Mino Raiola.

Manchester City have been linked with the Netherlands international, who faces Real Madrid in a Champions League round of 16 tie on Wednesday.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham have watched the 19-year-old in action in the last 12 months.

Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain have made official contact over teenager Matthijs de Ligt

But only Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain have contacted Ajax to make their interest official.  

The Daily Mirror reported that the belief in Holland is that English clubs are reluctant to do business with super-agent Raiola. 

Raiola fell out with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola over Zlatan Ibrahimovic when the Spaniard was Barcelona coach in 2011.

Premier League clubs are reportedly reluctant to do business with his agent Mino Raiola

United are wary of dealing with Raiola after after they discovered he had been touting Paul Pogba to Europe’s top clubs, while Arsenal were stung during negotiations for Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the deal that took Alexis Sanchez to Old Trafford last year. 

Barcelona have identified De Ligt as the long-term replacement for Gerard Pique at the heart of their defence, claim reports in Spain.

A potential move to the Nou Camp would see him follow Dutch team-mate Frenkie de Jong, who completed a £65m move on Wednesday. 

De Ligt could be the second Ajax wonderkid to move to the Nou Camp after Frenkie de Jong 

But Raiola remains one sizeable obstacle in the way.

Raiola would prefer his client to develop elsewhere, before making the switch to Barca, according to Mundo Deportivo.