Manchester City told to pay €80m for Real Madrid target

Manchester City have been given a boost in their pursuit of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but will have to pay in excess of £70m to land the Borussia Dortmund star in the summer.

The Premier League outfit have been heavily linked with a move for Aubameyang since Pep Guardiola was appointed their manager in the summer and the Spaniard could rekindle his interest in the striker with Sergio Aguero’s long-term future at the club in doubt.

Aubameyang, 27, is widely regarded as one of the best strikers in Europe and has already revealed a switch to Real Madrid would be his preferred move should he leave Dortmund and the club’s chief executive, Hans-Joachim Watzke, has revealed a bid in the region of €80m (£68.5m) would be considered by the board.

“We can never guarantee that a player will stay with Borussia Dortmund forever, but our strength is always to find new solutions,” Watzke told the Dortmund chief Kicker, via The Daily Mail.

“With an €80m offer, I would be thinking about Rauball and Zorc. If we had one [an offer], we would have to get together with Pierre-Emerick. We always have to differentiate between situations where there is such an offer, but we have no pressure… I would prefer it if no offer come.”

Aubameyang has spent the last two weeks with Gabon at the Africa Cup of Nations but could not help the host nation progress from the group stages and is now due to return to Dortmund to help them close down the 12-point gap with Bayern at the top of the Bundesliga.

Despite missing the first Bundesliga game since football resumed after the winter break, Aubameyang has scored more goals than any other player in German’s top-flight this season (16), while only Alexandre Lacazette (17) and Edinson Cavani (20) have scored more times in Europe’s top five leagues.

For more stats on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, click here to visit his WhoScored player page