Atletico Madrid have submitted a formal €35m bid for Lille forward Matias Fernandez-Pardo, with City and Tottenham among the Premier League clubs considering moves of their own for the highly-rated Belgian.
According to TEAMtalk, Lille are under no pressure to sell despite Atletico’s opening offer, with the French club set to receive over €100m from City separately for midfield prospect Ayyoub Bouaddi — funds that allow Lille’s new head coach Davide Ancelotti to build rather than cash in cheaply on his other prized assets.
A fee below €40m is understood to be enough to tempt Lille regardless, with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all previously credited with interest in the 21-year-old.
Fernandez-Pardo’s versatility is a big part of the appeal — comfortable on the left or through the middle, which suits City’s usual profile for wide forwards as much as it does Spurs, who are also weighing alternatives in Georges Mikautadze and Folarin Balogun for similar reasons.
Nothing suggests City are close to an approach of their own yet; Atletico have made the only concrete move so far.
But with Bouaddi’s fee already flowing the other way and City known to monitor Ligue 1’s best young talents closely, it’s a name worth tracking as the Lille-City relationship deepens this window.
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