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| Claudio Bravo to join Manchester City |
Claudio Bravo’s time as a player of FC Barcelona is set to come to an end and the goalkeeper will continue is career in England after reports in Spain suggest he has agreed a deal to sign for the Etihad outfit this summer.
According to Catalan publication SPORT, the Chilean goalkeeper will feature in his last game for FC Barcelona in the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup at the Camp Nou on Wednesday before travelling to Manchester on Thursday to sign a 4-year contract for Pep Guardiola’s side.
As reported, Manchester City will pay a sum of €25 million to sign the 33-year old shot-stopper and there have been a total agreement between both parties on the transfer with the recent injury of Marc Andre Ter Stegen delaying it.
Coach Pep Guardiola left Joe Hart out of the starting lineup in Manchester City’s 2-1 opening day win against Sunderland on Saturday and that led to speculations about the future of the English goalkeeper. Reports now say the goalie has been told to find a new club and his replacement will be Claudio Bravo.
When Guardiola was asked about the club’s interest in Bravo he replied saying “It is not the right time to talk about players who are not part of the club.”
There have been huge debates on who should be Barça’s starting goalkeeper for the new season and it seems as if Ter Stegen has been guaranteed the number one spot, and due to the fact that Claudio Bravo would not want to sit on the bench and only play club games, he decided to leave.
FC Barcelona are considering to replace the goalkeeper with Valencia’s Diego Alves who would cost around €3 million.
Claudio Bravo joined Barça from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2014 for a fee of around €15 million. Barça letting him go for a €10 million profit would be good business despite him having two years left in his contract with a €40 million release clause, but it doesn’t change the fact that they will be letting a great goalkeeper leave the club.