Al-Nassr target Manchester City midfielder Mateo Kovacic for January window

The Saudi-based team will have to make space for his signing.

Mateo Kovacic is the target of Al-Nassr for the January transfer window. To entice the midfield player, the team is proposing a salary package above $1 million per week.

The Saudi Pro League team had planned to sign Kovacic on Monday as a major deadline-day transfer. But they were unable to sell Sadio Mane and clear the space for overseas players. It would have been required for the midfielder, whose acquisition has reportedly received strong support from Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Saudi team is also thinking about making a move for Adrien Rabiot, a free agent. They are waiting to see if Turkish Super Lig clubs are interested in Mane and Anderson Talisca.

The Riyadh team will be forced to offload one of eight foreign players. In doing so they will make room on the roster for another international player older than 21. Rabiot’s signing would come despite Kovacic’s intended addition.

Star player Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr plan to make City a sizable bid when the transfer market reopens at the beginning of 2025. The Knights of Najd see the Croatian midfielder as a possible game-changing addition to their squad. According to sources close to the club, the amount they were willing to pay on the day of the deadline would have been among the highest fees ever paid by a Saudi club.

Apart from the substantial sum they were willing to provide City, Al-Nassr also planned to pay Kovacic an estimated compensation of $65 million a year. It is approximately six times his present wage.

Ultimately, they never started negotiations with City since they could not sell any overseas player like Mane. Two teams had expressed interest in the Senegal international Mane. One of which was Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr’s opponent in the Saudi Pro League. The PIF, a Saudi sovereign wealth fund, owns both clubs.

In addition, Al-Ahli had been in negotiations with Al-Taawoun to send Roberto Firmino to the team. As they would have needed to create room on their roster for Mane. Any dreams of freeing Kovacic from the Etihad Stadium vanished along with those failed series of trades.

Ronaldo, who reportedly supports a move for the Croatian international, surely would have been disappointed by the news. Both players played together during their days at Real Madrid.

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