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Every once in a while, we see South American youngsters reportedly negotiating or saying they’ve been in talks with Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola’s side, along with the City Football Group, have been doing interesting work in finding young talents in that continent over the past few years.

Now it’s Ecuadorian midfielder Jordan Sierra saying he came close to joining the Premier League side, as he held talks for a transfer a few years ago.

Interviewed by Ecuagol TV, he claimed that the Chikungunya virus is what stopped him from being evaluated by club officials.

“I saw the transfer to the Netherlands on all social networks and something true never came to me. What I can tell you is that Manchester City was true,” said Sierra (via Medio Tiempo).

“They even came, they had dinner with me, along with my agent, they were there, they were going to see me play and at that time I had a Chikungunya which had been going around and I couldn’t play, but what I can tell you is that I was with Manchester City people.”

Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted by mosquitos.

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Sierra didn’t say exactly when this happened, but it was before he left Ecuadorian side Delfin to move to the Mexican league back in 2018.

The 23-year-old has belonged to Tigres since then, despite having loan spells to develop at other clubs such as Lobos and Querétaro.

He went back to Tigres at the start of the year, and hopes to finally succeed at the club and get back to the national team.