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Manchester City will give Zack Steffen the chance to join their first-team squad in the summer.

The £4.5million summer buy has already doubled his market value after a successful loan season at Fortuna Dusseldorf, despite knee problems which have recently seen him head to Barcelona for treatment.

Steffen made his name with MLS side Columbus Crew, and the fact that he is a pure footballing goalkeeper, comfortable with the ball at his feet.

The 24-year-old quickly established himself as first choice at Fortuna, whose head coach is now City legend Uwe Rosler.

And the Bundesliga outfit’s football director Lutz Pfannenstiel marked him out as a typical City keeper.

“Zack had a brilliant start into the season and showed that he has the potential to become a top keeper at European level,” said Pfannenstiel.

“Steffen has all the ingredients. He has a very clean goalkeeper technique. Good reactions, good hands, and demanding in the box. His distribution and game-opening make him a modern keeper. Looking at all of that, it is not a surprise that Manchester City went for Zack.

“Normally, we wouldn’t be able to get a keeper of that calibre on the open market.”

City snapped up Steffen – who has 17 international caps for the USA - on the cheap last summer and it is already looking to be a sound investment, even if he does not make the grade with them.

His displays in the early part of the season earned him rave reviews in Germany, and led to whispers that City will allow Claudio Bravo to leave when his current contract expires this summer.

Steffen’s form slid before Christmas, but it was discovered he had a knee tendon problem which Fortuna at first tried to manage.

He made a high-profile error against Bayern Munich, passing the ball straight to Thomas Muller, which led directly to Corentin Tolisso’s goal in a 4-0 Bayern win.

After consulting with City, Fortuna agreed that sending Steffen to visit Pep Guardiola’s favourite doctor, Ramon Cugat, in Barcelona was the best course of action.

Fortuna want Steffen to stay for another season after this, but City are believed to want to take a look at him close up before making a final decision.

Ederson made three big mistakes in the Manchester derby at the weekend, and the Blues hope that a younger keeper than Bravo, with great ambition, might put healthy pressure on the Brazil stopper.

Steffen’s reaction to the Tolisso goal spoke of his mental strength. He said afterwards: “Such mistakes are always extremely annoying. But I won't change my game either. On the contrary, it pushes me to do better.

“The quality of the players is higher here, and so is the quality of the shots on goal. There is more work for me than there was recently in the USA,

“As a young goalkeeper, I need high-level games and experience. I get that from Fortuna. I have a good situation here.”