- Adwitya Jha
Reports: Manchester City eye left-back Abner Vinicius
Manchester City are expected to be busy in the summer transfer window, with The Athletic's David Ornstein revealing that the club will look to actively target a striker, a central midfielder and a left-back to bolster their squad.
With fresh info coming today in the club's search for a left-back. Mike McGrath of The Telegraph today revealed that City are looking at Brazilian full-back Abner Vinicius, as they step up their search for reinforcements.
Vinicius, a 21-year-old fullback, is a gold medallist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and has been on the radar of City's South American scouts, according to the report. The fullback plays for Athletico Paranaense in Brazil's top division, which, coincidently, is one of Fernandinho's former clubs.
City are assessing their options at left-back, with Benjamin Mendy out of the picture, leaving City with only Oleksandr Zinchenko as an orthodox option for the position. However, Joao Cancelo has had to switch flanks and regularly play at left-back for, owing to his superior form this season – coupled with Zinchenko's absences with injuries and Covid on separate occasions.
Nathan Ake has also filled in for that position and is another viable option for the team. But the Premier League champions are evidently targeting a specialist left-back in the coming summer market.
Vinicius joined Paranaense three seasons ago and has been tipped to make a move to Europe for some time, and is expected to follow the footsteps of his former team-mate Renan Lodi who made the switch to Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2019.
City have also dipped into the Brazilian market before; when they picked up Gabriel Jesus from Palmeiras and Douglas Luiz from Vasco da Gama, who has since moved to Aston Villa.
Written by: @adwitya16
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