Manchester City withdraw from transfer race to sign Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz | OneFootball

Officials at Manchester City are formally withdrawing their interest in signing Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz this summer, according to emerging reports.

The Premier League giants are currently in the process of finding a long-term replacement for Kevin De Bruyne ahead of the summer transfer window, with the Belgian set to leave the club in the coming weeks.

The 33-year-old held showdown talks with Manchester City officials earlier this year over his future, in which the likes of sporting director Txiki Begiristain and CEO Ferran Soriano informed the midfielder that they would not be offering him renewed terms beyond June.

As such, De Bruyne is now free to move on to a new challenge without a transfer fee involved in a deal, as the likes of Serie A giants Napoli and Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire put forward their proposals to the veteran creator.

While that situation continues to rumble on in the background, City find themselves placed at the very centre of some of the most prominent transfer rumours on the continent, with the race to sign Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz dominating headlines.

It had been initially suggested that Bayern Munich had struck a deal with the player’s side of things over a future move, only for Wirtz and his parents to hold talks with Manchester City and Liverpool last week.

However, in a major turn of events concerning the future of the player, Etihad Stadium bosses are seemingly now walking away from the race to sign a player that many believed was the ideal man to take hold of the Kevin De Bruyne creative role for years to come at City.

That is according to the information of BBC Sport’s Sami Mokbel, who reports that Manchester City are now withdrawing their initial interest in signing Florian Wirtz owing to the soaring costs of any deal.

It is estimated that an agreement to sign the 22-year-old would represent the biggest deal in the club’s history, with the report revealing that a move could potentially reaching as much as €300 million inclusive of transfer fees and wages.

And while there is said to be an acknowledgement within the Etihad Stadium that Florian Wirtz is among the leading young talents in European football, Manchester City officials are concerned the cost of the deal is ‘over-inflated’.

For now, it remains to be seen where Manchester City’s attentions could refocus to when it comes to the idea of bringing in a new creative midfielder, with the likes of Barcelona’s Dani Olmo and Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White among names linked in recent weeks.

The former is believed to have been a player long-admired by the club since his days with RB Leipzig and prior to his move to the newly-crowned La Liga champions, and Barcelona’s financial struggles may play a part in City’s interest in the Spaniard.

As for the aforementioned Englishman, the City Ground star was originally seen as a player of a different profile to Wirtz but could now have interest in him from the Etihad intensified as they look to get their succession planning from Kevin De Bruyne right.