Kevin de Bruyne’s agent has revealed that the Manchester City midfielder nearly joined Bayern Munich in the summer. The Belgian had agreed personal terms with the Bavarians, but the fee proved the stumbling block for the deal to go ahead, revealed his agent, Patrick de Koster.
In an interview with Belgian publication Sport/Foot Magazine, De Koster revealed that Bayern’s reluctance to pay a fee higher than €50 million proved a stumbling point, saying “With Bayern, I'm going to make this public for the first time, we reached an agreement after the second meeting.”
“It's over the transfer fee that it collapsed. I think that Bayern were ready to go as far as €50 million but not any higher. For a long time Kevin's heart was beating for the Bundesliga where he broke through at [Werder] Bremen before really excelling with Wolfsburg. I think that if Bayern were able to pay the asking price, he would be there today.”
De Koster also revealed that Paris St. Germain were in the mix for signing the Belgian midfielder last summer, with De Bruyne not going through with the trasfer due to Ligue 1’s relative unpopularity.
“We knew that the contract would be substantial, PSG were ready to put a lot on the table. For Kevin it was the chance to live in a magnificent city [Paris], to be close to Belgium and to develop alongside super players, but the lack of appeal of the French league tipped the scales.”
Manchester City the right move for De Bruyne
Ultimately, Manchester City were the victors of De Bruyne’s signature, as the Sky Blues paid a club-record fee of £55 million for the Belgian’s services. De Bruyne has justified his mammoth transfer fee, requiring almost no time to adapt as he’s already scored 11 goals with 12 assists in 27 games for City.
The attacker recently expressed his happiness at City, saying “Everything has gone really well for me. It normally takes a bit of time to adapt to your new surroundings but I immediately got to play a lot due to injuries.”
“It's great to play for an attacking team like City. It gives me more space. We have a lot of stars but everyone acts normal. There are no groups within the team, we all get along very well.”
His agent, De Koster also agrees with his client, saying “Today Kev is really happy with his choice because he's settled in at an incredible speed, both on the pitch and outside, where he's already found a house.”
