Manchester United great Jaap Stam has named Barcelona or Liverpool as the clubs Matthijs de Ligt should choose between as the Ajax star appears braced for a summer move.
The 19-year-old Ajax captain is widely expected to move on, with United and Man City both linked with a transfer.
But Stam, who won the Champions League and three league titles with United before finishing his career at Ajax — where's he's also been a coach — believes de Ligt's development will be best served elsewhere.
"It's important that he'll get playing time," Stam told DAZN .
"If you look at the squads: Barcelona, after losing to Liverpool, probably wants to strengthen their squad, especially in defence, if you ask me. The question is how they are going to solve that problem.
"I think that Matthijs de Ligt would be a good fit though. It will be great to see how he performs against better players in a better league, not just every few weeks, but every weekend.
"Same goes for Liverpool. We all know who is their biggest defensive star — his Dutch colleague (Virgil van Dijk) — the other players, (Dejan) Lovren and (Joel) Matip, rotate quite a lot.
"The big question is if he'll immediately play all matches. I think he has enough quality to do so. In those big leagues it's normal to have to deal with rotation, especially at the start you will probably start on the bench a bit more often.
"After that, you have to get used to the level and the quality of your opponents. I think the people around him, and Matthijs himself, are smart enough to pick the option with the most playing time. In that case, money won't make a difference."
The comments are unlikely to go down well with United fans, who have urged Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to make signing a centre-back the club's top summer transfer priority.
Manchester United have already received a Paulo Dybala summer transfer warning
