Manchester City have come to agreement with RB Leipzig over Josko Gvardiol. The two clubs have been locked in talks for weeks with only finer details needed to be agreed upon, and it is now understood that an agreement has been reached that will see City pay an initial £77.5m (€90m).
The deal, which also includes an agreement that City will play a friendly in Leipzig in the future, will not beat the previous record set by Manchester United when they paid £80m (€92m) to Leicester City for Harry Maguire in 2019.
City have been negotiating with Leipzig throughout the summer and finally struck a deal on Tuesday. The deal does not contain any add-ons related to performance or success.
Gvardiol, 21, is due to have his medical at the end of this week and City are hoping to officially announce the transfer by the end of the week or after the Community Shield fixture against Arsenal on Sunday.
The move will make Gvardiol the second most expensive defender of all time, with the fee being just shy of the £80m ($101m) Manchester United paid Leicester City for Harry Maguire in 2019 and just above the £75m ($95m) Liverpool paid to sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton in January 2018.
21-year-old Gvardiol is set to become City’s second signing of the summer following countryman Mateo Kovacic into the Etihad Stadium. Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez have both left, and there could yet be more outgoings, with interest in Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker, Kalvin Phillips and Aymeric Laporte.
The former Chelsea man has already sang the praises of his future club-mate.
“Josko has great potential, he can come here and learn and be the best version of himself. I’d obviously like it – I’m a good friend with him and he’s Croatian. It would be nice to have a Croatian by my side here,” Kovacic said earlier this month.
“I think it’s a good time [to join City]. They are on a great run, a very confident team and a team you can learn from. They have possibly the best manager in history. So I came here to join a great group and to try to learn.
“He’s still young but he’s mature. He doesn’t need much advice. He had a great World Cup and a great season with Leipzig.”