Villarreal have completed the signing of Italian Under-21 international Giuseppe Rossi from Manchester United for £6.7 million.

The 20-year-old American-born striker will sign subject to a medical and has been lined up to replace another former United forward Diego Forlan who has joined Atletico Madrid for £12m.

Rossi was loaned to Newcastle United last season before moving to Italian side Parma, where his nine goals in 17 matches played a large part in keeping them in Serie A for next season.

Parma were keen to sign him on a permanent basis but their bid of £5.4 million was trumped by Villarreal

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed Manchester United have first refusal on re-signing Rossi.

Ferguson did his best to persuade the 20-year-old to stay but Rossi decided he wanted more first-team opportunities than he was likely to get at Old Trafford this season.

"We have put a clause in the contract, so maybe he will come back to us at some stage," Ferguson said. "We wish Giuseppe well and we know he will do well at Villarreal.

"It was a difficult decision to let him leave. I had several meetings with him to try and convince him that he would get plenty of football with us this season and all he needed was a bit of patience.

"But, having been on loan last season, he wanted first-team football all the time."

Rossi scored four times in 14 senior appearances for United since joining them from Parma as a 16-year-old. Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, described Rossi as 'the future of the club' last summer when he signed a new contract which would have kept him with the 'Red Devils' till 2010.

Ironically, Rossi's last start for United was in the final game of the 2005-06 campaign, when he was preferred to Ruud van Nistelrooy, a decision which effectively ended the Dutchman's Old Trafford career and saw him also depart for Spain to Real Madrid.

Ferguson will now hope to tie up the transfer of Carlos Tevez reasonably quickly as, with Alan Smith seemingly certain to leave before the August 31 deadline and both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Louis Saha on the injured list, he is likely to have only one recognised out-and-out striker, Wayne Rooney, in his squad for Sunday's Community Shield showdown with Chelsea at Wembley.