• Contract set to make Sterling one of City’s best-paid players • Salary could pass £250,000 a week with incentives factored in

Manchester City are to open talks with Raheem Sterling regarding a new contract, with the club ready to make the forward one of their highest‑paid players.

The discussions are expected to start in February. Sterling’s existing contract expires in summer 2020, the England international having agreed a five-year deal when joining from Liverpool in the summer of 2015.

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Sterling earns around £170,000 a week basic and can expect a rise of at least £50,000 a week, along with lucrative incentives that would push the 23-year-old’s salary beyond £250,000 a week.

This would put him in the top band of earners at City. Kevin De Bruyne is in the final stages of negotiating a contract which when agreed will put the 26-year-old ahead of Sterling. Alexis Sánchez, should he join from Arsenal in January as City hope, is likely to be the only player in Pep Guardiola’s squad on a higher salary.

Sterling is enjoying a standout season. His 18 goals for City are his best tally in a season, making him the second‑highest scorer behind Sergio Agüero. This has repaid Guardiola’s faith after the manager refused to allow him to be a makeweight in a deal that would have taken Sánchez to City on the final day of the summer transfer window.

De Bruyne said of his new deal: “We are still in negotiations. I am waiting for an offer from the club but my agent has been on holiday for three weeks. There is nothing really new for the moment. I’m not in a hurry. I still have three-and-a-half years on the contract.”

Asked if he could expect a big pay rise, the midfielder said: “I cannot complain for the moment. We will see what happens. Negotiations are going good but they are going quietly. That is the way I think it should be.”