From Germany: Club expresses interest in Manchester City midfielder – Negotiations yet to start | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan is the subject of growing transfer interest this summer despite recently extending his Etihad Stadium contract.

The 34-year-old is heading towards yet another season with Manchester City despite only penning a 12-month deal upon returning to the Etihad Stadium from Barcelona on a free transfer towards the end of the last summer market.

Following the emergence of added financial complications at the La Liga giants, Gundogan was deemed surplus to requirements at Camp Nou in order to free-up his finances for other players, with Manchester City showing no hesitation to bring the player back to the club.

Just one year on from successfully captaining Manchester City to a historic Treble success culminating in a UEFA Champions League triumph in Istanbul, Gundogan returned to the very heart of Pep Guardiola’s midfield output last season.

Despite originally believing that there may be less demands on him due to his age upon returning to the club, Ilkay Gundogan would amass 50 appearances across competitions largely owing to widespread fitness and injury problems in Guardiola’s first-team.

But despite that importance to the legendary head coach last season, and automatically triggering a one-year extension to his contractual agreement, there remains a belief that Ilkay Gundogan could yet leave Manchester City once again this summer.

That is following the emergence of information from Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, who confirms that Turkish giants Galatasaray have expressed an interest in signing the experienced Manchester City midfielder this summer.

Despite the initial interest, it is indicated that there are currently no negotiations taking place regarding a deal for the German, and as such the matter has not progressed further at this stage.

From the side of Ilkay Gündogan, the report insists that the veteran midfielder is fully focused on Manchester City’s activities at the ongoing FIFA Club World Cup in the United States.

Director of Football, Hugo Viana has already completed a large chunk of his summer transfer business prior to the start of the Club World Cup, welcoming in two players into the midfield ranks for a combined cost of around £80 million.

Rayan Cherki became the fourth and final player to be formally announced by Manchester City before their venture out to Boca Raton in Florida, largely expected to succeed Kevin De Bruyne in the attacking midfield role.

Elsewhere and Tijjani Reijnders has arrived in a big-money switch from AC Milan, adding a much-needed energy and versatility to the central ranks, largely viewed as a No8 by those within the club and a box-to-box player – by his own admission.

It would remain to be seen whether club officials would deem their existing options sufficient to cope with any possible departure of Ilkay Gundogan, or whether Viana and co would return to the market to replace the former Germany international.