Man City agree £54m fee with Wolfsburg for Kevin De Bruyne

Manchester City agree £54m fee with Wolfsburg for Kevin De Bruyne

• Clubs reach breakthrough in negotiations for Belgium international
• De Bruyne expected to travel to England for medical on Thursday


Kevin De Bruyne looks set to become Manchester City's new record signing.

Manchester City are confident they have finally agreed a deal to sign Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg for an initial €74m (£54m), although bonuses could take the deal beyond €80m (£58.5m).

Negotiations over the Belgium midfielder have been taking place for several weeks and sources close to the Bundesliga club have confirmed that a breakthrough was reached on Wednesday. Several details still need to be resolved, including the structure of payments due and the player’s medical.

However, it is understood that De Bruyne will fly to England on Thursday for his medicaland is expected to be officially unveiled as a City player on Fridaytomorrow.

If the deal goes through, it would become the second highest transfer fee paid by an English club behind the £59.7m Manchester United paid for Ángel di María last summer. It would also surpass the club record £49m City paid to Liverpool for Raheem Sterling earlier this summer.De Bruyne is expected to be offered wages worth around £250,000 a week.

Despite widespread reports in Germany, however, De Bruyne’s agent, Patrick De Koster, refused to confirm any agreement had been struck, although he did hint that an announcement could be imminent.

“I’m having dinner with Kevin at the moment but we have no news,” he said. “We are relaxed about the situation and we will see what happens in the next day or two. Kevin is not desperate to leave Wolfsburg but hopefully there will be a conclusion soon.”

Guardian