Manuel Akanji to Leave Man City After Accepting Inter Loan Deal

Manuel Akanji is reportedly about to pen a deal with Italian top-flight big hitters Inter, mercifully ending a dizzying saga of speculation about the Swiss centre back.

Potential suitors of the Manchester City defender moving on were quashed sooner than a new one was proposed. Initially considered a candidate for Galatasaray, speculation had existed of a transfer within the Premier League to Tottenham Hotspur or West Ham United before interest being put on the versatile defender by AC Milan.

According to the recent Sky Italia reports, Manuel Akanji will play at San Siro next term but will be decked out in blue and black instead of red and black.

Inter are said to have settled on an initial loan agreement for Manuel Akanji with the option of making it permanent next June worth €15 million (£13 million, $17.5 million). Chivu’s team will pay an initial €2 million loan fee.

Those rumored numbers would be a tiny loss on City, who paid €20 million for Manuel Akanji from Borussia Dortmund back in 2022. The smart right footer made a noticeable impression at the Etihad—“He showed what a good central defender Manchester City just bought,” said Pep Guardiola after his first game—and ended that debut season by winning the Champions League final against Inter and securing a European treble.

Experienced enough to fill all four positions of the backline, Manuel Akanji was ever-present under Guardiola up to the 2023–24 season before injuries unsettled him all through the last season. When City ended up with the worst season of Guardiola’s managerial career, the 30-year-old was missing for 19 games in all tournaments.

The Catalan manager has made a significant clear-out at City over recent months, injecting a fleet of new young arrivals at the Etihad. But those arrivals must be calibrated by clearances or the squad becomes bloated. As Guardiola warned at the end of the last season: “I said to the club I don’t want that [a bigger squad]. I don’t want five or six players in the freezer. Make a smaller squad. I will remain.”