Man City to send Joao Cancelo ON LOAN to Bayern Munich in shock move

Manchester City have agreed to send Joao Cancelo out on loan to Bayern Munich in a shock move late on in the window, with the deal to include an option to buy the player for £61.5million.

The Portugal international has fallen out of favour within Pep Guardiola’s side and has failed to start in any of their last three outings. 

Bayern have been admirers of the full-back for a long time and see him as a potential answer to their faltering domestic form throughout this campaign.

Cancelo was named in the last two PFA Premier League Team of the Year, playing 36 games last season as City comfortably wrapped up the title.

However, the dynamic full-back, who can play on the right or left side of the defence as well as midfield, has fallen down the pecking order under Guardiola, with Nathan Ake, John Stones, Kyle Walker and now academy graduate Rico Lewis all preferred ahead of Cancelo.

Cancelo’s continued omission from the starting XI has raised eyebrows since the World Cup – especially after the fact how Guardiola hinted that poor body language was the reason why certain players were being left on the bench.

‘Every time it is difficult to choose the team for me — always top players are not playing,’ Guardiola said earlier this month. ‘Lately, as I get older, I mainly look at the body language. In the training sessions and everything. You cannot play good when the body language is not correct.

The Portugal international has fallen out of favour under Pep Guardiola (right) this season

Guardiola has preferred academy graduate Rico Lewis to Cancelo in recent weeks

‘Sometimes you choose the players for how happy they are. That is one of the main decisions with choosing the line-up, because with the skills, I know how good they are. The body language depends on them and sometimes they are not good and it is more difficult.’

Cancelo is currently under contract at the Etihad until 2027 and will join a Bayern side who have drawn their last three games, which has allowed Union Berlin to reduce the gap to them at the top to just a point.

Should a move go through, Cancelo could feature against Mainz in the German Cup on Wednesday, while Julian Nagelsmann could be ready to throw him in against Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday.