Manchester United target Memphis Depay 'like a young Cristiano Ronaldo' amid transfer links

Ronald de Boer has favourably compared Memphis Depay to a young Cristiano Ronaldo and believes the presence of manager Louis van Gaal at Manchester United may prove beneficial with the PSV winger attracting significant attention from the Premier League.

Depay has featured heavily on the European football agenda in recent days after PSV technical director Marcel Brands conceded the club had already fielded a telephone call from United concerning the player.

While he was also very quick to stress no formal offers for Depay had yet been tabled, such an admission has only served to increase the level of scrutiny on the talented 21-year-old who began his fledgling international career during Van Gaal's second stint in charge of the Netherlands.

Indeed, Liverpool have now become the latest Premier League club to be mentioned in connection with the player, with under-pressure manager Brendan Rodgers expected to refresh his attacking options during the summer following a bitterly disappointing campaign on Merseyside.

With the next transfer window not due to open until 9 June, it could be that interested parties are left waiting for a while yet to discover Depay's future intentions after a blistering run of 20 goals in 27 appearances helped PSV to secure their first Eredivisie title since 2008 and their 22nd overall.

What is certainly not in question according to compatriot De Boer, though, is that whoever emerges victorious from this particular transfer race will be receiving one of the most promising and skilful talents to have emerged from domestic Dutch football over recent years.

"He is one of the biggest talents in Europe," De Boer told Talksport. "He has skill compared to a young Cristiano Ronaldo. He is very lively, technically unbelievable, very skilful, very fast, he has a great goalscoring record, he can shoot from every distance - he has everything. For me, he is without doubt one of the best talents we have.

"I don't want to say which club is more suitable for him, but if he goes to United he knows there is a Dutch coach there who knows him from the World Cup. That is an advantage."