The Catalans will attempt to sign Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling on loan in January, reports Spanish media outlet Sport.
The Spanish giants failed with an attempt to sign the Englishman this summer, despite sporting director Mateu Alemany travelling to Manchester. The Blaugrana will attempt to take Sterling away from City in January on a temporary deal, with the player said to be keen on the transfer after losing minutes in the first team.
The report says that Sterling is Barcelona’s ‘“priority target” for the winter, despite the club having little room for transfer negotiations. The Catalan club faced difficulties this summer in terms of registering new signings due to LaLiga’s strict wage cap – an obstacle they evaded by getting stalwarts, such as Gerard Pique, to lower their wages.
However, they could not prevent Lionel Messi from leaving the club for free and had to sell off many young prospects, including Emerson Royal, whom they had signed earlier this summer.
The complete structure of the deal remains unknown, as does the fact whether Manchester City themselves would be content with letting one of their key players leave on loan. Nonetheless, Sterling himself would not object to a transfer to Camp Nou, albeit temporarily.
The Englishman has started just one of City’s four league games so far this season, while he also came off the bench for their opening game of the UEFA Champions League campaign. He has accumulated just 179 minutes this season across all competitions, with Pep Guardiola preferring to start Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Ferran Torres, and Jack Grealish ahead of him.
The 26-year-old is in his seventh season with Manchester City, signing for them from Liverpool back in 2015. He is closing in on a triple century of appearances for the Cityzens and has scored 115 goals for them so far.
