Man City News

Report: Defender could leave Man City, club have £3.81m deal agreed if this happens

|

Ko Itakura could leave Manchester City permanently at the end of the season if Schalke 04 are promoted to the Bundesliga, say SportBild (h/t Sport Witness).

The 24-year-old joined Die Königsblauen on a season-long loan in August and has been a regular under Dimitrios Grammozis, making seven appearances this campaign.

Itakura arrived at Man City from Kawasaki Frontale in January 2019 but has yet to make an appearance – he was loaned out to FC Groningen (January 2019 – June 2020) (July 2020 – June 2021) before joining Schalke (August 2021 – present).

With John Stones, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte for competition, he never stood a chance of playing for City.

Schalke can sign Itakura permanently for €4.5m (£3.81m) next summer if they return to the top-flight and they’re set for automatic promotion as things stand. Die Königsblauen sit third in 2.Bundesliga with 19 points from 10 games, three points adrift of leaders FC St. Pauli.

City will make a profit on Itakura’s sale as they paid less than £1m for him two years ago, but Schalke have to be a top-flight club to procure his signature for good. That means movement won’t be made on a deal until May.

In other news, Man City scouting £38.4m-rated striker with 20 goals and 12 assists

Share this article

Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.