Manchester City and Atletico Madrid have previously engaged in several noteworthy transfer agreements.
For instance, City paid a record-breaking £81 million to acquire Julian Alvarez from Manchester for Real Madrid during the summer transfer window after acquiring club superstar Sergio Aguero in 2011 and Rodri from the Spanish team in 2019 (via BBC Sport).
But now, Pep Guardiola’s team aims to bolster their roster with another Atletico player.
However, they face fierce competition in doing so.
Man City is vying for Pablo Barrios’ services.
A recent rumour from Caught Offside claims that City is among the teams interested in Pablo Barrios, a midfielder for Atletico Madrid.
According to the report, Chelsea is the team with the greatest interest, followed by Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
According to the report, Atletico may be open to parting ways with Barrios if they receive a price of €60 million (£49 million), even if they don’t appear to be looking to sell him.
Guardiola said that a midfield player might be acquired in January.
Guardiola talked about City acquiring a midfield player in January as a possible means of replacing the Spaniard after Rodri’s knee injury forced him to miss the rest of the season. He made this statement back in September.
“We shall see,” he said. We spoke with Txiki today; we’ll see how things develop. I take it that we don’t have to make a decision tomorrow. We have time to observe any possible issues that may arise, and we will then observe
Barrios has made 69 senior appearances for Diego Simeone’s team after rising through the Atletico youth systems.
With the third-highest combined total of tackles and interceptions in the Atletico team, the 21-year-old has started six of the seven La Liga games he has played this season.
Barrios is now the third-highest-ranked Atletico player with a season rating of 6.9/10 from WhoScored, which is based on his overall performances in those league games.
It’s easy to conclude that Barrios is an intriguing player given his youth, the fact that he plays frequently for Atletico, and the fact that four of Europe’s major teams are interested in signing him.
