FC Barcelona are in talks with Manchester City for the permanent transfer of Portuguese fullback Joao Cancelo, reported Talk Sport on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old is the first choice of Barcelona’s head coach Xavi Hernandez who does not have a natural right-back in his squad and is forced to play Jules Kounde or Ronald Araujo — two natural centre-backs — at that position.
As per the source, the talks for the right-back have already begun.
Cancelo fell out of favour with City’s coach Pep Guardiola, he was asked to leave the club in January 2023, after which he joined Bayern Munich and returned to the treble winners six months later.
He played 21 games for the Bavarian club and played his part in helping them win their 11th straight Bundesliga title.
However, with Ousmane Dembele’s departure, where Barca will reportedly get €50m, Xavi has confirmed that the Catalan club will use it to sign a right-back.
“With the departure of Dembele, we need a pure right-back now,” he told reporters.
It has to be mentioned that Cancelo was signed for €65 million from Juventus and was one of the most-wanted players by Guardiola.
But, due to a constant lack of playing time, he once had a training ground bust-up with Guardiola after learning that he is not part of the starting XI for City’s FA Cup match against Arsenal in January.
The incident was not tolerated neither by Guardiola nor by City’s board and the footballer was immediately put on the market.
With Cancelo’s signing, Barcelona will have a great pair of full-backs with Alejandro Balde linking up with Ferran Torres on the left flank and the Portuguese linking up with Raphinha on the right.
And with Robert Lewandowski in the centre and midfield occupied by Frenkie de Jong, Ilkay Gundogan and Pedri, it would not be wrong to say that Barcelona will go all in to compete for the league title as well as the Champions League.