Although Manchester City have Ruben Dias, John Stones, Aymeric Laporte and Nathan Ake at their disposal, Calciomercato (h/t Sport Witness) say the Premier League defending champions are interested in Matthijs De Ligt.
The 22-year-old is a regular at Juventus, seemingly content under Massimiliano Allegri and isn’t a player the Old Lady are willing to sell, but his future is reportedly up in the air as agent Mino Raiola has initiated talks with City.
De Ligt joined Juve from Ajax in 2019 and has gone on to make 83 appearances in all competitions, scoring six goals with two assists. The Netherlands international has been a regular this season too, starting in seven of Juve’s 10 games across the board, so does Allegri really want him out?
Even if the Serie A giants wanted De Ligt out of Turin, his asking price and wages will be too steep for most clubs. The 22-year-old has a €150m (£126.5m) release clause and takes home €7.5m-a-year (£6.3m-a-year/£121k-per-week), so he wouldn’t be cheap.
Pep Guardiola has four able centre-backs in his squad, so it makes little sense to spend so much on added competition. City have a more fervent need to sign a centre-forward after Sergio Aguero was released over the summer, so Calciomercato’s story may not have a lot of weight to it.
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