Gianluigi Donnarumma has confirmed Manchester City\u2019s interest in him predated this summer\u2019s Club World Cup and that the move gained momentum as the tournament concluded.<\/p>\n
According to the Italy captain\u2019s agent , negotiations remained positive heading into the Club World Cup. Donnarumma helped the European champions make it to the final on July 13 and the player\u2019s representative claims that the mood didn\u2019t shift until the start of August. When PSG\u2019s recruitment advisor Luis Campos recently revealed , Donnarumma\u2019s salary demands did not fit the new wage policy introduced in Paris. When it became apparent that Luis Enrique had deemed his formerly undisputed No. 1 as surplus to requirements, City pounced, eventually agreeing a deal worth \u00a326 million ($35.5 million).<\/p>\n
Donnarumma offered a direct account of the timeline at a press conference before his first Champions League appearance as a City player. \u201cBefore the summer, I already knew that City were very interested in me,\u201d he said. \u201cThen the relationship strengthened after the Club World Cup. I learned that the coach was pushing for my arrival here, and this made me very proud. That\u2019s also why I didn\u2019t hesitate to accept coming here with great joy and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very clear: my desire was to come here, it was my first and only option,\u201d Donnarumma insisted after a summer littered with talk of rival Premier League interest from Manchester United and Chelsea .<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about the future; I\u2019ve already said what I think about being here. I\u2019m happy to be at City and to be part of this great team. I hope to contribute a lot to these colours for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his new environment, he added: \u201cI thank the coach,\u201d Donnarumma said of Pep Guardiola. \u201cIt\u2019s an honour for me to be here and to be coached by him, who has written football history. I still have a lot to learn and improve; that\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The account underlines a transfer that moved quickly from positive talks around the Club World Cup to a completed deal early in August, closing a chapter on his PSG stint and beginning his time with City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donnarumma says Manchester City interest began before Club World Cup and Guardiola pushed for move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[983,1032,1040],"class_list":["post-2873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-agents","tag-contract-disputes","tag-donnarumma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}