Manchester City are set to see a new face take up a key role at the club this summer.
Earlier this month, David Ornstein revealed that Txiki Begiristain is set to leave City at the end of the season after 13 years as the club’s sporting director.
It was then reported that City had agreed a deal for Hugo Viana to replace Begiristain following several years in the same role at Sporting CP.
This was then officially confirmed in a statement shared on the club’s official website during the latest international break.
Even though the next summer transfer window is still some months away from opening, Viana may have been given an advantage to land what could be an early star signing for City.
- Who is Hugo Viana? Get familiar with the favourite to replace Txiki Begiristain as Man City Director of Football
Bayer Leverkusen CEO hands Man City advantage for Florian Wirtz transfer
Earlier this month, it was reported that City are behind Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the transfer race to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
In a recent post on his official X account, journalist Florian Plettenberg relayed these comments from Leverkusen CEO Ferran Carron to Bild on the possibility of Wirtz joining Bayern.
He said: “It is, of course, self-evident that we do not want to strengthen direct competitors in our own league with top players.
“I also said that directly to Jonathan Tah. I understand if you want to leave, but I would have preferred any club other than one in Germany.”
Viana could make a statement signing with Wirtz
At the age of 21, Wirtz has bagged 47 goals and supplied 51 assists in 162 matches across all competitions.
This makes it easy to see why the German has been mentioned with a move to the Etihad Stadium as well as Real and Bayern.
Back in April, Carro told Radio Marca (via 90Min) that the German club would only sell Wirtz for a minimum fee of €150m (£125m).
Even though it would take a significant investment for City to sign Wirtz, if they’re more likely to be able to convince Leverkusen to sell him to them than Bayern, this is the sort of advantage Viana should look to pounce on to complete what would be a statement signing for his new club in the summer.
