Manchester City are pushing hard for AC Milan’s Tijjani Reijnders.
Pep Guardiola is very eager to strengthen his midfield this summer, and the middle of the park is set to undergo a total revamp, with Reijnders being Man City’s top target for the number eight role.
On Friday, the Premier League club saw a proposal worth around €60m (£50m), including add-ons, rejected by AC Milan; however, Man City would see an offer of £59m (€70m) accepted by the Serie A club later in the day.
The English giants are keen to have the Dutch midfielder in their squad before they get their FIFA Club World Cup campaign underway against Wydad AC on June 18, and Fabrizio Romano has provided an update on just how close the transfer is to being complete.
Man City are really close to signing AC Milan’s Tijjani Reijnders
Reijnders has already said yes to a move to Man City this summer as the Dutch star is ready to start a new chapter in his career, having spent the last two years in Milan.
Romano has revealed how close the midfielder is to becoming a Premier League player, with the transfer expert stating that the deal is “really close”.
“Man City and Milan are speaking for Reijnders. Reijnders is getting really close, really, really, really close to joining Manchester City,” Romano said on his YouTube channel.
“It’s just about discussing more times to reach an agreement on the transfer fee, but it’s advancing fast”.
Reijnders will be a great fit for Man City as the 26-year-old will add the physicality the Manchester club were missing in the middle of the park this season, while the Dutch star is also technically very good.
Fans of the Manchester club will now start to want to know more about their new signing, with the deal very close to being complete, and one of them might be the unusual way he received his name.
How Tijjani Reijnders got his name
Reijnders once revealed that he is named after former Super Eagles and Ajax forward Tijani Babangida, despite the AC Milan star having zero ties to the nation of Nigeria.
According to ESPN FC, the 26-year-old’s parents are said to have just liked the name and therefore, they decided to call their son after the former Eredivisie star, who would, funnily enough, then go on to become a professional footballer.
Babangida spent a lot of his career in the Netherlands, spending seven years with Ajax between 1996 and 2003, where he would win the Eredivisie title in 1998, alongside the KNVB Cup in 1998 and 1999.
This suggests that Reijnders’ parents were Ajax fans, and although their son never played for the Dutch giants, they will be very proud of how his career has played out.
