In addition, Manchester City will pay €2m in unspecified ‘add-ons’ as Kicker reported. With just one-year left on the defender’s contract, the transfer will be a boost for new sporting director Sebastian Kehl and will be welcome income to the club that reported a loss of €35m for the 2021/22 season.
“I watch a lot of Premier League and obviously a lot of Manchester City games, because they have been champions many times in recent years. “I really like the football style the team plays, and I think I can fit perfectly in that style,” Akanji told the club’s website.
Manchester City already has four centre-backs at the club – John Stones, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte. But the latter two are injured and Laporte is yet to feature this season.
It’s therefore likely that Akanji could be seen as an ideal option to add more depth to that area of the pitch for Guardiola’s men. Akanji finished the last campaign having made 36 appearances across all competitions.
BVB signed defenders Nico Schlotterbeck from Freiburg and Niklas Süle from Bayern Munich in the summer and the Swiss defender has not figured in any of the league matches this season despite Süle being injured.
For the 41-time Swiss international, moving to the Premier League is the fulfilment of a long-held ambition. In an interesting twist, Akanji told Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 2018 that his favourite club is Manchester United.
Akanji played 119 games for BVB since joining FC Basel and won the 2021 DFB Pokal and the 2019 DFL Supercup during his time with the Signal-Iduna-Park-based club.
Ben McFadyean
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