Buy option, loan fee & Co. – Salihamidzic reveals new details about Cancelo transfer!
FC Bayern has snapped up Portugal star Joao Cancelo from Manchester United on the last day of the winter transfer period. The 28-year-old defender will play for the German record champions on loan until the end of the season. According to Bayern’s sports director Hasan Salihamidzic, it is not clear what will happen with Cancelo in the summer.
In recent days, there have been repeated reports that Bayern have signed Cancelo, one of Julian Nagelsmann’s absolute favourites. It has now been revealed that the Portuguese international had been on Nagelsmann’s wish list for quite some time: „After the transfer was finalised, we actually thought about how long we had been looking at Joao. We came up with more than four years,“ he revealed in an interview with „BILD am Sonntag“.
In other words, when Cancelo moved from Juventus Turin to Manchester City for €65 million in the summer of 2019, Bayern were already interested in the defender. According to Salihamidzic, however, the FCB did not have the necessary small change at the time: „A transfer was never possible before. Either the position was occupied or we didn’t have the money for it.
Cancelo to stay? Salihamidzic: „We are playing with our cards on the table“.
According to rumours, Bayern have secured an option to buy Cancelo for €70 million. Unlike the loan of Philippe Coutinho from FC Barcelona in 2019, the Munich club have not officially confirmed Cancelo’s purchase option. However, Salihamidzic’s statements in this regard are clear: „We have told him clearly that this sum is difficult for us to imagine in the next few years.“ Nevertheless, a stay beyond the summer is not out of the question: „If all sides absolutely want a joint solution, it can be managed in the end. He knows that he has been one of our desired players for years.“
Interestingly, Salihamidzic also confirmed that Bayern got Cancelo for free and did not have to transfer a loan fee to ManCity: „The fact that Cancelo worked out without a loan fee is a network, but of course also luck.
