Dayot Upamecano is attracting interest from Manchester United and Manchester City

Manchester United and Manchester City are both interested in signing RB Leipzig centre-back Dayot Upamecano.

The 21-year-old France youth international has emerged as one of the best upcoming defenders in Europe, and is said to be on the lists of both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Pep Guardiola.

City, in fact, are hoping to sign two new centre-backs when the transfer window eventually reopens, having conceded more goals (31) so far this season than the previous two campaigns (23, 27), and 10 more than league-leaders Liverpool.

Dayot Upamecano impressed against Tottenham in the Champions League earlier this season

City perused the January market but did not pursue a deal, having looked at players like Bournemouth's Nathan Ake, Inter Milan's Milan Skriniar, Shakhtar Donetsk's Mykola Matvyenko, and the Leicester duo Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu.

Their rivals United, meanwhile, also want to bring in another centre-back, with Chris Smalling's and Phil Jones' futures uncertain, and they have been repeatedly linked with Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly.

Arsenal have also been linked with Upamecano in the past but have William Saliba joining from St Etienne in the summer as well as the option to make Pablo Mari's loan from Flamengo permanent.

According to Sky Germany, the impressive youngster Upamacano is also being discussed at a host of top clubs in Europe, including Bayern Munich and the major clubs in Spain.

Talks are at a very early stage and interest not yet concrete, however, especially due to the ongoing financial uncertainty in the game caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Dayot Upamecano is about to enter the final year of his current deal

RB Leipzig are not among the Bundesliga clubs currently struggling for cash, but what is interesting about Upamacano's situation is that he is about to enter the final year of his RB Leipzig contract and has a release clause of £52.5m (€60m).

That could put his valuation closer to those of Ake and other highly-rated centre-backs in England such as James Tarkowski at Burnley and Lewis Dunk at Brighton, with the window scheduled to open on June 10 despite no date yet being set for the resumption of the 2019/20 season.

Upamecano has made 29 appearances this season in all competiions, including six in the Champions League, as RB Leipzig have pushed Bayern and Borussa Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga. They are currently third, five points off top with nine games remaining.