English Premier League giants Manchester City and Chelsea are in a two-horse race to sign Portuguese superstar Rafael Leao from AC Milan.
After spending time in the Amora and Foot 21 academy, Rafael Leao joined the youth setup of Portuguese giants Sporting CP.
The Portuguese winger later graduated from the Sporting CP academy and was promoted to the senior team. He then spent a season at Sporting before joining French team Lille on a five-year deal. Under the orders of Christophe Galtier he established himself as a starter at Lille. However, the winger stayed just one season in France and then joined Serie A giants AC Milan for a reported fee of €35m.
Finally, in his third season with the Rossoneri, Leao helped the club win Serie-A. The winger went on to win the season’s Most Valuable Player award. Leao has also made his international debut with Portugal.
Manchester City and Chelsea will fight for Leao
Leao has also continued his great form this season. The striker has already scored five goals and provided five assists for AC Milan in Serie-A. The defending champions obviously want to keep Leao in Milan. He has been offered a new contract extension.
But the Portuguese winger has reportedly turned him down. And now, according to a report from Tuttomercatoweb, AC Milan would be ready to sell the winger if an offer of around 105 million comes in next January’s transfer window.
Defending English Premier League champions Manchester City have reportedly found great interest in Rafael Leao. The Citizens currently have one of the best squads in Europe. They have ample depth at all positions.
But that doesn’t stop them from signing more quality players. Manchester City recently signed Erling Haaland from Dortmund after paying his release clause worth 51 million euros. The Norwegian striker has been in great form so far. And now Manchester City wants to take their lead to another level by signing Leao.
Meanwhile, his Premier League rivals have been interested in Leao since last summer’s transfer market. They even tried to sign him but Milan were not at all interested in selling the winger at the time.
Now Chelsea have reignited their interest in the winger. The Blues are looking to use the likes of Pulisic and Ziyech to cut Leao’s price. Boehly has made the Portuguese one of his main targets for the January transfer market.
In addition to Manchester City and Chelsea, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain have also shown their interest in the Portuguese winger. But both the Red Devils and PSG are currently far behind City and Chelsea.
Now, before the January transfer market, the AC Milan winger will be part of the Portuguese national team. Any good performance from the winger will increase his value.
