Man City firm up Florian Wirtz transfer interest as Leverkusen eye two players in exchange

Manchester City are targeting a summer transfer for Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz, and the Bundesliga side would like to take a couple of Pep Guardiola’s players in exchange

Bayer Leverkusen want to sign Manchester City duo James McAtee and Stefan Ortega – and the Blues are set to use their interest as leverage in their own bid to land No 1 summer target Florian Wirtz.

Officials from the Bundesliga club made a planned visit to the Etihad Campus during the week – and they sounded out City about the prospect of taking both McAtee and Ortega to Germany. City will sell if the price is right. Pep Guardiola is a big fan of McAtee but has been unable to give the 22-year-old enough action. After rejecting a bid from Leverkusen in January, the champions will cash in if the Germans come up with £25million.

Ortega, the back-up keeper who has become a German international, also wants more time on the pitch after playing a key role in last season’s title win when No 1 Ederson was sidelined by injury. City value the 32-year-old at around £15million.

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Leverkusen have also been made aware that City want to bring £100million-rated midfielder Wirtz to Manchester as a creative replacement for Kevin De Bruyne. City face competition from Bayern Munich, but Leverkusen would prefer the 21-year-old to leave Germany.

They still haven’t given up hope of persuading Wirtz to sign a one-year contract extension until 2027 so that they can include a £125million buy-out clause in the agreement. But Leverkusen’s interest in bolstering Xabi Alonso’s squad with McAtee and Ortega gives them an ace to play in negotiations.

McAtee made a rare Premier League start in Saturday’s 5-2 win over Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium, with the former Sheffield United loanee scoring the fourth goal after a fine assist from Ederson.

Reflecting on the pass from his teammate, McAtee said: “He can kick it dead far. He’s got a great pass so when I saw the defence was high up I just tried to get between them and the goal.

“I don’t think we deserved to be 2-0 down. I think I missed a few chances early on and the game just got away from us a little bit. We were playing well anyway, we knew the goals were going to come and they did.

“Obviously we wanted to prove a point and show that we were committed and want to finish in the Champions League spots.”

Ortega also made a late appearance from the bench after Ederson suffered a groin injury with 20 minutes remaning.

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