Manchester City seem to have missed out on the signing of an exciting attacker to AC Milan, with Fabrizio Romano revealing the Italian giants are getting closer to landing him first.
Manchester City have yet to sign anyone during the January transfer window, instead focusing on removing a couple of unwanted players from the squad. On Thursday, goalkeeper Zack Steffen returned to the United States, joining the Colorado Rapids for an undisclosed fee.
Central midfielder Kalvin Phillips, another player dropped by Pep Guardiola, could soon follow him out of the Etihad. Newcastle United were recently given a fantastic opportunity to sign Phillips after Juventus pulled out of the race.
While City has been in talks with Newcastle about the Englishman’s potential departure, they have also discussed the possibility of signing Matija Popovic. He is an 18-year-old central attacking midfielder who can also play left winger or center forward and has been impressing in Serbia.
The Serbia youth international scored 21 goals and assisted five times in 25 matches for Partizan Belgrade’s U17 team, attracting interest from a number of major clubs.
When it became clear that Partizan was struggling to sign Popovic to a new contract, City and Milan swooped in.
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On December 22, it was revealed that City had entered ‘advanced talks’ to sign the starlet, attempting to derail Milan’s bid for him.
Popovic has since become a free agent after his Partizan contract expired on December 31. This has increased the competition between City and Milan for his services.
AC Milan is ‘closing in’ on Manchester City target
Romano has now provided an update on the situation via X, which was previously known as Twitter. He claims that Milan has fought off City’s approach and is the frontrunner for Popovic, with the club ‘closing in’ on his transfer.
The teenager turned 18 on Monday, so he can now sign a professional contract, and Milan is ready to’seal the deal’.
Despite City’s huge success under Guardiola and superior finances, the journalist adds that Milan ‘have always been confident’ about Popovic joining them.
City will be disappointed to miss out on the youngster, who is a very exciting player with the potential to become a big hit in Serie A. Dusan Vlahovic, Aleksandar Mitrovic, and Nikola Milenkovic are among the top players to have emerged from Partizan’s academy. Popovic could follow in their footsteps and eventually make it into the Milan senior team.
