City Watch @City_Watch 2m2 minutes ago
Manchester City have made a £16.7million offer to sign one of Brazilian football's most promising forwards, Gabriel Jesus. [
@DuncanCastles]
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Manchester City have made a £16.7million offer to sign one of Brazilian football's most promising young forwards, Gabriel Jesus. City's bid, which matches a $24m specified-club release clause in the under-23 international's contract with Palmeiras, is intended to trump competing interest from Barcelona and Juventus.
Barca, who regard Gabriel as a potential long-term successor to the unsettled Neymar, have bid $19m for the Brazilian. Italian champions Juventus' offer currently stands at $21m. The player's contract includes two release clauses – the first permitting him to join Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain or Real Madrid for a transfer fee of $24m; the second applicable to other clubs at $40m.
Gabriel broke into Palmeiras' first team in August 2014. Last season he was voted the 'Revelation' of the Brazilian Championship as the Sao Paulo club won the Copa do Brasil. The quick and technically accomplished forward can play anywhere across the front line, but has been primarily used as a left winger, scoring 20 goals in 60 senior appearances for Palmeiras.
Unusually for a player of his ilk, Gabriel has been praised for both his work ethic and his willingness to take on defensive duties. “He will become a major player in Brazilian football, and also the Selecao, if they have patience,” said Palmeiras academy coach Bruno Petri. “He is a boy who is easy to speak with and work with and who is different to the others in the question of training, always giving more than 100 percent.”
Gabriel has yet to play for the senior Brazil national team, but City do not expect to encounter problems in securing a UK work permit. They will, however, have to buy out third-party owners to register him as a Premier League footballer - Palmeiras only own 30 percent of his economic rights with the player himself owning 15 percent.
Incoming City manager Pep Guardiola has been granted carte blanche to overhaul the club's senior squad, initially directing that Wilfried Bony, Aleksandar Kolorov, Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure be made available for sale. As yet, no buyers have been secured.
At Guardiola's request, City put a deal in place to sign Ilkay Gundogan from Borussia Dortmund before the Germany midfielder dislocated a kneecap in May, with the transfer being officially completed at the beginning of this month. The Catalan coach missed out on his preferred central defensive reinforcement, Aymeric Laporte after the France under-21 international suffered a serious leg injury and elected to renew his contract at Athletic Bilbao. City have targeted Everton's John Stones as an alternative to Laporte.
