Premier League champions Manchester City are in talks to sign Rafael Leão, who has taken steps to rescind his contract with Sporting, according to claims from Portugal today.

Newspaper Jornal de Notícias is reporting Pep Guardiola’s side are currently in informal negotiations for the player.

In order to avoid a future legal battle, as Sporting will fight against the contract recision, Manchester City would be willing to compensate Sporting with a fee.

This price would be much less than the €60m release clause that the Portuguese club used to demand for the 19 year old attacker.

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A deal like this isn’t seen as bad by Sporting. First because Leão can leave for free, as the legal process can’t guarantee a win for Sporting, so a few million is better than nothing. And second because their city rivals Benfica have been close to signing the player anyway, so it would be better if he moved to England instead.

Jornal de Notícias claims that Sporting are now trying to convince the player to give up on rescinding the contract, so they can get this fee with his sale.

With this situation clearly complicated and out of the transfer standards we’re used to, this should take a while. Unless Manchester City want to just take the player and run the risk of being sued, just like Wolves recently did with Rui Patrício.