Whether Joao Cancelo will remain at Bayern beyond the season is an open question. With the expensive purchase option, sports director Hasan Salihamidzic plays “with open cards”.
His contract with Man City runs until 2027: Joao Cancelo.
IMAGO/Jan Huebner
FC Bayern could sign winter newcomer Joao Cancelo from Manchester City for 70 million euros at the end of the season. However, it is completely uncertain whether the record champions will use this option. With this transfer fee, the full-back would become the second most expensive signing in the club’s history – behind Lucas Hernandez (80 million euros) and ahead of Matthijs de Ligt (67 million euros).
“We’re playing with open cards,” said sports director Hasan Salihamidzic of “Bild am Sonntag” about the purchase option, without confirming the exact amount. “The most important thing is that Joao feels comfortable in Munich and can perform in the second half of the season. But we also made it clear to him that this sum is difficult for us to imagine in the next few years.”
However, it cannot be ruled out that Bayern will sign Cancelo, who was initially loaned out until the end of the season and has a contract with ManCity until 2027. He has learned, says Salihamidzic: “If all sides absolutely want a common solution, you can manage that in the end. He knows that he has been one of our dream players for years.”
Cancelo “for more than four years” in Bayern focus
Apparently, Bayern even had the Portuguese national player on their list before he switched from Juventus to ManCity in the summer of 2019. “After the transfer was done, we actually thought again about how long we had been dealing with Joao. We came up with more than four years! But a transfer was never possible before. Either the position was just occupied with us, or we didn’t have the money for it. In the end, our persistence paid off,” said Salihamidzic, who benefited from his own preparatory work shortly before the end of the winter transfer phase.
“From many conversations with his agent Jorge Mendes, he knew how much I value the player. When it was clear that Cancelo was on the market, I got the signal last Sunday. Since both sides already knew a lot about each other’s ideas, I left the deal very quickly,” explained Salihamidzic and confirmed that Cancelo did not cost FCB a rental fee. That is “network, but of course also luck”.
