Man City Close To Agreement With Dortmund For Nigerian Defender

Premier League champions Manchester City are close to an agreement with Borussia Dortmund for Switzerland-born Nigerian defender Manuel Akanji.

According to The Athletic, negotiations between City and Dortmund are ongoing over a €17.5million deal.

Akanji, 27, has yet to make an appearance for Dortmund this season and is into the final year of his contract.

Manuel Akanji

City manager Pep Guardiola was asked earlier on Tuesday if he could categorically say that the Etihad club were done in the transfer market and replied, “I don’t know what will happen.”

City have four senior centre-backs in their squad already, but Aymeric Laporte has yet to make an appearance this season due to injury.

Ruben Dias, John Stones and Nathan Ake have been used by Guardiola so far in 2022-23, but the latter is also currently out through injury.

Akanji joined Dortmund from Basel in 2018 and has been a first-team regular since his arrival. He made 36 appearances in all competitions last season.

The Switzerland international has, however, been pushed down the pecking order at the Bundesliga club with the summer arrivals of Niklas Sule from Bayern Munich and Nico Schlotterbeck from Freiburg.

Born in Wiesendangen to a Nigerian father and a Switzerland mother, Akanji began his youth career with the local club in Wiesendangen.

Akanji joined Borussia Dortmund on 15 January 2018 during the winter transfer window for a reported fee of €18 million. He signed a four and a half year contract dated until June 2022.

At international level, he made two appearances for the Switzerland U-20 national team. His debut was on 7 September 2014 in the 0–0 draw against German.

From 2014, he was a member of the Switzerland U-21 team and made his debut for them on 26 March in the 0–3 defeat by the Italian U-21 team.

Akanji made his debut in the senior team in the 2–0 win against Faroe Islands in the 2018 World Cup qualification match on 9 June 2017.

He was included in the Swiss team’s 23 man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

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