On June 20th we covered claims from Portugal that Manchester City had opened informal talks to sign Rafael Leão.
The 19 year old forward had taken steps to rescind his contract with Sporting like several other players at the Lisbon club. Former president Bruno de Carvalho had created a very tense environment at Sporting and always seemed to be at war with several people at any one time.
Slamming the players publicly repeatedly and questioning their commitment, the former club official took blame when hooligans attacked Sporting players at their training centre.
That led to the contract situations.
Manchester City and Rafael Leão went a little quiet for a while but came back during the week.
On July 25th it was reported Manchester City were making a €15m offer to Sporting and expected a positive reaction. The reasoning behind making an offer for a free agent is to avoid a legal battle with the Portuguese club.
Saturday’s edition of Record reports the youngster now has ‘little time to decide’ on his future. There’s the possibility of signing again with Sporting, and Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund get a mention. As yet there’s no agreement been found with any of the clubs.It’s explained Rafael Leão needs to be quick or other targets will become priorities.
