Manchester City have failed in an attempt to sign Brazilian midfielder Mauricio, the player has revealed.
The 18-year-old was interviewed by Band this week, and said his club have turned down a bid from the Premier League side.
“There was a proposal at the end of last year, from Manchester City, Cruzeiro immediately refused,” he said (via Globo Esporte).
“I didn’t hear about this offer, about detailed things, only that Cruzeiro turned down this bid. I wanted to continue this year, for this reconstruction, to have my game pace, make my story at Cruzeiro.”
Mauricio is a promising midfielder who’d been loaned by Desportivo Brasil and had his move to Cruzeiro made permanent in December. He was one of the club’s few highlights in 2019.
Cruzeiro are currently living a huge economic crisis following their relegation to the second division at the end of last year. An investigation found out that club officials had been using corporate cards for their own expenses.
By December, the club knew how hard it’d be to recover in 2020, so if Manchester City couldn’t convince them to sell Maurício, that’s probably because the bid was very low.
Now since the player has only 21 appearances on a professional level, it’s more likely that Manchester City were looking to sign him and loan him out to one of their partner clubs.
