news-engine

← manchester_city

Manchester City ‘flabbergasted’ by player’s rejection - Maresca’s side were ready to offer €100m

Sport Witness · Naveen Ullal · 2026-09-04T07:36:02+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Manchester City were willing to invest on signing Bayern Munich’s Aleksandar Pavlović in the summer window. That’s according to Bild, who report Manchester City were chasing the 22-year-old for several months. Player said no to Manchester City Two months ago, Sport Witness covered a report from Spain explaining that the Citizens want to sign young midfielders. The 22-year-old, Barcelona’s Marc Bernal and Ayyoub Bouaddi were on their list and the English club ended up signing the latter from Lille. Bild journalist Christian Falk states Manchester City first made an approach for Aleksandar Pavlović in March. Enzo Maresca’s predecessor, Pep Guardiola, was then in charge at the Etihad. “You really have to let that sink in. A €100m offer from Manchester City for Pavlović, and the young man says ‘no.’ That’s really impressive. He asked for some time to think it over,” he said. “To our knowledge, the first inquiry was back in March. At that time, he was City’s number one choice for that position.” The Bild head of football adds the German international’s rejection came as a surprise for the Premier League side. “I heard they (Manchester City) were flabbergasted. They didn’t expect that. They probably would have been willing to negotiate a higher amount with Bayern as well. But there wasn’t even an official offer because Pavlović said, ‘No, I’m not coming anyway’,” Falk explained. Clear plan after rejecting Manchester City Aleksandar Pavlović made his way into the Bundesliga side’s first team in 2023, after graduating from their academy. He has played 102 matches so far, managing eight goals and six assists and has a contract until 2029. Bild reporter Julian Agardi says the Germany international’s goal is to win the Champions League with Bayern Munich. “Pavlović is from Munich, he was born here. There are photos of him as a little boy in a Bayern Munich jersey. He still makes no secret of the fact that he’s a Bayern fan. And you can tell that every time you talk to him,” he added. “He also has many good buddies in the dressing room: Tom Bischof, Lennart Karl, Nene Brown. And yet it’s remarkable that he rejected this offer outright. That shows that he has absolutely no thoughts of leaving but rather feels completely at home at Bayern and sees his future with the club.” The Etihad club invested big on three midfielders; Ayyoub Bouaddi, Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernández in the summer.