Back in November, we covered a story from RMC Sport that Manchester City had offered Willem Geubbels a contract to mull over ahead of his own deal with Lyon coming to an end in June.
His current side have been doing their utmost to get him to extend his stay with them, but it appears that hasn’t been enough, with the same outlet claiming the 16-year-old has now refused the Ligue 1 club’s offer.
This will be great news for Pep Guardiola and his coaching staff, who seem intent to add the young forward to Manchester City’s academy, yet they aren’t in the lead to sign him.
RMC Sport state Monaco, who recently signed Pietro Pellegri from Genoa for around €25m, are in pole position, probably due to their track record of giving youngsters a chance.
The situation is reminiscent of what happened with Anthony Martial, who swapped Lyon for the principality club at a young age, only to end up at Manchester United a few years later in a transfer that could end up costing the Red Devils €80m.
However, were it to happen, Geubbels transfer away from Lyon would cost more than the €5m they ended up paying for Martial, although if he does end up at Manchester City, that will be a fee the Cityzens will be happy to pay.
We’ll have to wait and see what the Lyon starlet’s final decision is, and we fully expect a ‘Pep Guardiola makes personal phone call’ article to come out in the coming weeks.
