By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- For weeks German international Leroy Sane and his possible move to Bayern Munich have been the main topic in German media.
Now the deal is said to get finalist shortly after many ups and downs that kept fans minds on both sides busy as contradicting media reports did.
Now the well-informed sports magazine kicker is reporting the 2019 German Champion and the 2019 Premier League winner Manchester City have agreed on a deal worth more than 100 million euros (about 110 million U.S. dollars).
The 23-year-old winger is said to have finally decided to leave the Citizens and their Spanish star coach Pep Guardiola, the tabloid Bild reported. Only details need to be fixed, the paper wrote.
Sane is expected to sign a four- or five-year contract in Munich, the kicker claims. The Sane deal is going to be the biggest investment in Bayern's history after it signed Lucas Hernandez from Atletico Madrid for 80 million.
The Bavarians are said to invest up to 200 million euros, including the players' salary.
Bayern denied the reports on Thursday evening.
After the retirement of the club legends Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, the German record Champion was desperately looking for suitable replacements. To only count on their wingers Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman was regarded to be too risky. With Sane in the Bayern shirt, the German can be a threat to any European side.
For long new faces seemed out of the site after attempts to sign Chelsea youngster Callum Hudson-Odoi failed until Sane turned up as a possible option.
Over the last months, several Bayern players and club leaders spoke about the growing interest in Sane, which obviously caused unrest in Manchester as Sane has an until 2021 valid contract with Manchester.
Bayern coach Niko Kovac expressed his optimism regarding the deal. "We all know Leroy Sane is our dream player," he said.
"The public knows that we know that. You can see that the transfer is not easy. But I know that our people are working very hard to make it happen. We will do everything to realize this transfer."
Meanwhile, Citizens coach Guardiola tried to convince Sane to stay and offered a contract extension but admitted the case was not in the club's hands anymore. "I have said two or three times; we want him to stay. But he has to decide. If he wants to leave, he can do so, but we will be sad," the Spaniard said.
Sane joined the Citizens on their Asia promotion tour over the last weeks not commenting on his future.
This week the case took a curious turn.
All of a sudden Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge changed his tune. Rather than backing Kovac's statements about being confident in the matter, the Bayern chief criticized his coach in public sharply.
Kovac quickly talked about his recent apology to Guardiola over the phone for having spoken about a player of another club. In a recent TV interview, he added his apology is to include the entire club of the Citizens.
Despite his apology, the 47-year-old former Croatian national coach confirmed that his previous statements were still true. The former midfielder said he is confident to soon welcome Sane in Munich.
The Nuremberg based sports magazine kicker now discovered an explanation for the unusual behavior of the Bavarians.
The report claims the Citizens sent an official warning letter to Bayern Munich two weeks ago, telling the 2013 treble winner to avoid speaking about a possible Sane transfer.
Bayern officials didn't want to endanger the deal on the last meters. Now it looks like a happy end for Bayern's fans. Nearly 90 percent confirmed in a media survey to support the enormous investment.
