MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City looks to have found a replacement for Riyad Mahrez with only a few days left in Europe’s summer transfer window.
City and French team Rennes have reportedly reached agreement on a fee for the transfer of Belgium winger Jérémy Doku, who will cost the English and European champions 65 million euros ($71 million) if he passes a medical examination.
Neither club has commented officially about the potential transfer.
The 21-year-old Doku is a fast and skilful winger who has played for Rennes since 2020. Before that, he was at Anderlecht.
City has been searching for an extra attacker to add to the squad after selling Mahrez to Saudi Arabian team Al-Ahli last month.
Defender Josko Gvardiol and midfielder Mateo Kovacic are City’s two signings so far in this transfer window.
read more:Arrival of Man City star will result in Barcelona discarding pursuit of Spanish youngster – report
FC Barcelona have managed to endure the summer transfer window with the limited economic resources and allowances that they possessed and during its duration have managed to acquire players on low costs or as free transfers to reinforce the team.
In particular, the signings of German midfielder and former Manchester City star Ilkay Gundogan as well as the former La Masia player Oriol Romeu’s arrivals have managed to respectively invigorate this Barcelona side in their unique positions.
However, the Catalan giants are not exactly done just yet with their pursuits of specific targets they wish to bring to Barcelona this summer and a particular Manchester City fullback remains very much on their agenda in terms of arrivals.
According to Luis Rojo of MARCA, FC Barcelona is “one step away” from securing the transfer of the 29-year-old Portuguese right-back Joao Cancelo and expect him to arrive at the club at some point in the upcoming week.
Moreover, this signing will potentially mean that FC Barcelona would have to withdraw their pursuit of another talented fullback who happens to be a much younger starlet aged just 18. According to the report, the arrival of Cancelo would mean that the arrival of Ivan Fresneda of Real Valladolid will be completely discarded.
Upon the integration of Cancelo within this current FC Barcelona team, Xavi Hernandez will then have a specialist right-back that possesses high levels of quality as well as great experience at the best levels of European football, something that the Catalan coach has wanted to have in his rather young side.
Furthermore, If Cancelo does end up arriving, he would be the primary choice at right-back and the alternatives to him that Xavi will possess at Barcelona will be Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, and Sergi Roberto, not necessarily in that order as all the players possess a different set of skills that could come into play against various opponents.
