Manchester City are believed to have met with the agent of 22-year-old River Plate midfielder Nicolás De La Cruz to discuss a potential transfer.
The versatile midfielder was in fine form for River in 2019 and has been one of the most exciting talents in Argentina this season.
According to Argentinian outlet Olé, De La Cruz’s performances have caught the eye of City scouts, who have been asking around the country for more reports and opinions on the 22-year-old.
City are said to have met with De La Cruz’s agent to negotiate a potential transfer. He has a €22m release clause in his contract, and City would be prepared to pay that, but the problem is that River do not own 100% of the rights to De La Cruz.
In fact, River own just 30%, while his agent Paco Casol owns 70% of the rights to the winger. If City activated that €22m release clause, River would stand to earn just under €7m, which may not be enough to make the deal worth it for them.
The Argentinian side plan to meet with Casol to discuss facilitating the transfer. They hope he will agree to accept a smaller fee as a gesture of good will to River, who gave De La Cruz the chance to impress City in the first place.
Olé seem to suggest that this deal is a real possibility, but it seems unlikely that City would spend so much money on such an unproven talent.
Having managed eight goals and 16 assists in 63 appearances for River to date, De La Cruz is yet to show the kind of quality which would earn him a place in City’s stacked team. He would be competing with the likes of Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez, so earning regular game time would be near impossible.
It’s possible that City could want to do this deal with a view to loaning De La Cruz to another top-flight side. He has looked like a promising talent, but he still has a long way to go before he could compete for minutes at the Etihad Stadium.
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