Man City Keen to Tie Eric Garcia Down to New Deal Amid Barcelona Interest
By Max Haley
Manchester City are keen to offer young centre-back Eric Garcia a new contract amid transfer interest from former club Barcelona.
19-year-old Garcia, who joined City from Barça's famed La Masia youth academy in 2017, made his Premier League debut this season and featured in 19 games in all competitions in 2019/20.
After an impressive breakthrough campaign, Barcelona have been linked with a move to re-sign their former starlet, whose contract expires in 2022.
While there is talk that Garcia could be keen to re-join his old club, especially if Pep Guardiola does not renew his contract in Manchester, Goal say City are determined to tie the teenage defender - seen as a possible successor to Gerard Pique by Barcelona - to a new long-term deal.
Meanwhile, Catalan publication Sport claim Man City will negotiate for Garcia but are insisting on including versatile star Sergio Roberto as part of a part-exchange deal.
For their part, it is said that Barça would rather let full back Nelson Semedo leave the club.
Sport assert that City's interest in Roberto goes back to the beginning of the year, before transfer plans were brought to a halt by the coronavirus crisis.
The report adds that the two clubs have been negotiating potential swap deals for a number of players over recent months. Barcelona - who have already completed a complicated swap-deal of sorts this summer with Miralem Pjanic joining from Juventus - initially offered Nelson Semedo to City, as part of a deal with Joao Cancelo going the other way.
City's supposed preferred swap player, Roberto, has been an important utility player for Barcelona in recent years, playing both at right-back and central midfield.
The 28-year-old has spent his entire career at Camp Nou, making 388 career appearances for the club and famously scored the decisive goal in Barcelona's 6-1 Champions League comeback win over Paris Saint-Germain in 2017.