Barcelona are reported to be growing in confidence that they can sign Joao Cancelo on a permanent transfer from Manchester City this summer.
The Portugal full-back is on a season-long loan with the Spanish giants, with his City career pretty much over.
Cancelo reportedly fell out with Pep Guardiola in January 2023 over the game time he was getting, and his loan to Bayern Munich came as something of a surprise at the time.
Cancelo briefly returned to City in the summer and turned out a few times in pre-season, but on deadline day he completed a move to Barca, after it had looked like it was going to fall through at one point.
People like Joan Laporta and Deco have been vocal about signing Cancelo permanently, and that is starting to look like it could be an eventuality…
Barcelona ‘increasingly confident’ of permanent Joao Cancelo transfer from Manchester City
So far this season, Cancelo has made 26 appearances for Barcelona and has largely impressed.
Cancelo has mostly caught the eye for his attacking ability, scoring three goals and making four assists across all competitions.
Defensively though he’s had some poor moments, such as after he’d come on at half-time in the recent 5-3 defeat to Villarreal. After that game, Cancelo branded his own performance as a ‘disaster’.
But according to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona are ‘increasingly confident’ of signing Cancelo from Manchester City on a permanent transfer.
At the moment there is no word on how much City could ask for. But the Treble winners’ preference is to sell. There are no plans to reintegrate the player back into the first-team squad.
City must sell Cancelo this summer
The time has come for City to sell £250,000-a-week man Cancelo.
There can be no more loan moves – the club now need to be selling because he does not appear to have any future back at City. If Barca cannot ultimately afford the ‘amazing’ full-back then that is not City’s problem.
Hopefully, the Spanish giants – whose financial problems in recent years have been well documented – can cobble together the necessary funds to sign Cancelo permanently.
It was reported earlier this season that Barca thought they could sign the player for around £21 million – but City can surely get more for him than that.
