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Nicolas Pepe to snub Liverpool and Manchester United to sign for Bayern Munich

Nicolas Pepe in action against Netherlands during an international friendly

Premier League giants Liverpool and Manchester United have received a major kick in the teeth as top target Nicolas Pepe has reportedly decided to snub them and join Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich instead.

Pepe was heavily linked with Liverpool before recent reports started claiming that Manchester United are interested in the winger as well. Pepe took the Ligue 1 by storm this season, scoring 22 goals and helping his club LOSC Lille secure Champions League qualification.

Lille have slapped a £70 million price tag on the 24-year-old. Bayern Munich are desperate to find successors to the departing Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery. With Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane all operating at their best, Pepe will find it hard to break into the first-team at Liverpool and this must have definitely had an influence on his decision.

The lack of Champions League football has taken the shine off the prospect of joining Manchester United leaving Bayern favourites to wrap up the deal. Bayern Munich were heavily linked with Leroy Sane as well. However, Bayern have struggled to break new ground in their pursuit of the German and are now expected to go all out for the Ivory Coast international instead.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad