Clubs across all of Europe’s major domestic leagues are already gearing up for the coming 2023/24 campaign, and with the end of the recent international break, we are seeing the movement of far more players now as managers get their sides in shape for the battles ahead – but this time of year always throws up some unexpected, but long running sagas – and it seems the future of Napoli’s Kim Min-jae could turn into one of them.
Given the links and speculation so far, which originally had Manchester United interested in him prior to talks breaking down, it was believed that the 26 year old South Korean would be set for a summer move to German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich, and given more recent press reports it is widely believed that a deal between the two clubs is almost over the line, and that the player is very close to completing his own formalities.
However, having more than proven that he has turned himself as one of Serie A and Europe’s very best central defenders, where he also more than played his part in helping to guide Napoli to their first Serie A title since 1990, it is now being reported that serial English winners, Manchester City have been tracking him and could well now make a very late offer which would scupper Bayern’s advances.
It is believed that Kim’s release clause is only around the £50 million mark, and City would certainly have no issues in immediately triggering that to quickly bring them to the negotiating table, and irrespective of how far down the line talks are with Bayern Munich, if City do make a formal contact here, it will no doubt prove to be a very interesting potential move for the player given their own successes over the past few seasons and the quality of squad that they already possess.
Let us not forget, that in the 2022/23 campaign alone, they lifted three of the sports major trophies (the Premier League title, the Football Association Cup, and of course, they finally won the much desired Champions League trophy) and that was despite a poor start to the campaign that saw Arsenal unexpectedly take a good points advantage on the title itself before City finally overtook them.
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