Manchester City leading race to sign Barcelona wonderkid

Manchester City has emerged as the front-runners to sign wonderkid Gerard Deulofeu from Barcelona. 

City have overtaken Chelsea in the race to capture the 18-year-old, who has an £8.1million buy-out clause.

Since the sacking of Roberto Di Matteo, Chelsea have fallen behind and City are understood to be prepared to double his wages. 

Deulofeu is considered to be the stars of the Academy and is being billed in Spain as the heir to Lionel Messi’s throne. 

He has already played briefly in the Champions League and La Liga this season. And he is such hot property that Nike offered him a £122,000 deal when he was just 14. 

But he is still only on a youth contract at the club and has so far refused to sign a new deal which would keep him there until June 2017, despite extensive talks between the club and his agent. 

Deulofeu has scored a series of spectacular goals for the Barcelona B team this season but is already growing impatient for regular first-team football. 

City were alerted to his availability by new sporting director Txiki Begiristain, who used to work for Barcelona.

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Source: DailyMail