Benfica ready to sell Pep Guardiola’s ‘top target’ to Manchester City for €35 million – report – City Watch

There have been jokes of late of Manchester City trying to buy the entire Monaco side, with Bernardo Silva already in, a deal for Benjamin Mendy forever in the works, and both Kylian Mbappé and Fabinho reported targets.

However, it could be Benfica that City return to for seconds with a report today stating that Álex Grimaldo, the Spain under-21 international formerly of Barcelona, is Pep Guardiola’s top target for the problematic left-back position.

According to Correio da Manhã in Portugal, talks intensified for Grimaldo during negotiations for Ederson Moraes, who joined from Benfica recently.

Grimaldo is not a new target and was heavily linked in the winter transfer window, but a long-term injury cooled those links and his name has seldom been mentioned recently compared to the likes of Mendy, Alex Sandro and Ryan Bertrand.

The information from Correio da Manhã is that Grimaldo is Pep’s number one target, with Benfica willing to let him leave the club for around €35 million (£30.7 million), considerably less than his €60 million (£52.7 million) release clause.

Grimaldo is under contract until 2021 at the Estádio da Luz and in addition to City his former club Barcelona, who sold him to Benfica for just €1.5 million, are also said to be interested.

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We spoke to David Pritchett of Planet Benfica about Grimaldo back in December and he had good things to say about the youngster.

– Let’s Talk: Man City target Álex Grimaldo with David Pritchett of Planet Benfica

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