Bernardo Silva has reportedly agreed to join Barcelona from Manchester City this summer.
The Portuguese international was close to leaving City last summer but opted to stay and ended up playing a huge part in the club’s Premier League title win in 2021-22.
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He scored eight and assisted four as the Citizens finished on 93 points, one point above second-placed Liverpool.
Barcelona have been linked with Bernardo for a long time but have looked unlikely to complete a deal given City have slapped an £80m price tag on the playmaker.
A report last month claimed Bernardo has been informed of the La Liga club’s interest through his agent, Jorge Mendes, and the player and his representatives believed at that stage that they had to be ‘patient’.
It was claimed Pep Guardiola had spoken with Barcelona president Joan Laporta and the 27-year-old has a ‘verbal agreement’ with the City manager that he can leave if a ‘good offer’ from Barca comes in.
And Spanish publication Sport (via Forbes) now claim Bernardo has agreed a switch to Barcelona, and negotiations have started over a deal ‘between €85m and €95m’.
It’s thought that the move rests on the transfer of Frenkie de Jong, who has been rumoured to be close to a switch to Manchester United for weeks.
But Laporta cast doubt over that deal on Saturday, remarking: “We have no intention of selling him and he wants to stay. I will do everything in my power to make him stay.”
But the report states that Bernardo has told Guardiola of his desire to leave Manchester, and while the City boss wants to retain his services, he recently admitted that he will not stop players who want to leave from doing so.
“As of today, I think Bernardo will continue at Man City next season but as I always said, I don’t like to keep players that are unhappy,” Guardiola said when announcing a late-August friendly between City and Barcelona.
“But Bernardo is important and I think he will stay.”
