“I am very happy and it is an honour to sign for Manchester United. I can’t wait to get started. I am looking forward to showing everybody what I can do on the pitch. I am very thankful to [United manager] Sir Alex Ferguson for bringing me to such a great club. Manchester United has a long history of younger players coming through and hopefully I can follow and do the same.” - Frederic Veseli.

Manchester United had two victories (of a sort) over great rivals Manchester City on Tuesday. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side closed the gap at the top of the Premier League and also poached one of their rivals most promising young players.

According to reports, City were hoping to hold on to Veseli, a 19-year-old Swiss central defender who had initially joined the blue half of Manchester from Lausanne Sport in 2008.

Veseli is highly rated and captained his country to victory at the 2009 Under-17 World Cup where he showed himself to be an imposing defender with leadership qualities.

Supporters of Manchester United have already left comments on the YouTube video below, comparing Veseli with the likes of Phil Jones and Nemanja Vidic.

A scouting video on new Manchester United signing Frederic Veseli is here.