Man City battle Barcelona for River Plate’s Claudio Echeverri

Manchester City are on the verge of beating Barcelona in race to sign Argentinian teenager Claudio Echeverri from River Plate.

No deal has yet been agreed for the midfielder, who starred as Argentina reached the semi-finals of the Under-17 World Cup earlier this month.

It is anticipated that if City do sign Echeverri, he would be loaned back to River Plate for the rest of the European season.

City have an existing relationship with the Argentine giants, having signed the excellent Julian Alvarez from Los Millonarios in January 2022, but the club let him stay with the Buenos Aires club for the next six months.

The forward then moved to Manchester, going on to win the World Cup, the Club World Cup, the Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup in little over a year.

Echeverri said in a post-match interview at the weekend that he will not sign a new contract with River Plate and will enter the last 12 months of his current deal on New Year’s Day.

He scored five goals in the recent U-17 World Cup, including a hat-trick in Argentina’s quarter-final win over Brazil.

Echeverri, who has been linked with Barcelona and has been compared to Lionel Messi, reportedly has a release clause of €25m.

After winning the Club World Cup, Pep Guardiola confirmed Man City are prepared to build a new chapter amid challenges from Arsenal and Liverpool in this season’s title race.

“I would like to say we had the feeling we would close the chapter, we won all the titles, there’s nothing else to win, I had a feeling the job was done, it was over,” he said.

“Enzo (Maresca) helped us to win the treble, Mikel (Arteta), all my staff, all the players from day one, Vincent to Kyle as captains, all players mentioned, Joao (Cancelo), Cole Palmer, Riyad (Mahrez), Ilkay (Gundogan), helped us to achieve something incredible to be here and to play this tournament.

“It’s most difficult to arrive here, once we are here it’s perform well. Now it’s Christmas time, buy another book and start to write it again. The last eight years it’s over.”