Manchester City’s potential world-record pursuit of RB Leipzig and Croatia defender Josko Gvardiol is making headlines – but will the Treble winners get their man?
The 21-year-old left-footed centre-back, who can play at left-back too, is a target for City. Leipzig want at least 100m euros (£85.8m), which would make him the most expensive defender ever.
He has been called ‘little Pep’ because of his name’s similarity to City boss Pep Guardiola.
So who is Gvardiol, just how good is he – and what would he bring to City?
Who are the most expensive defenders ever?
If City end up paying over 93m euros for Gvardiol, that would make him the most expensive defender ever.
City already have three of the top 10 – with Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte – although the futures of the latter two are in doubt.
| Harry Maguire | (Leicester – Man Utd, 2019) | £80m |
| Virgil van Dijk | (Southampton – Liverpool, 2018) | £75m |
| Wesley Fofana | (Leicester – Chelsea, 2022) | £70m |
| Lucas Hernandez | (Atletico Madrid – Bayern Munich, 2019) | £68m |
| Matthijs de Ligt x 2 | (Ajax – Juventus, 2019), (Juventus – Bayern Munich 2022) | £67.5m, £65.6m |
| Ruben Dias | (Benfica – Manchester City, 2020) | £65m |
| Joao Cancelo | (Juventus – Manchester City, 2019) | £60m |
| Aymeric Laporte | (Athletic Bilbao – Manchester City, 2018) | £57m |
| Marc Cucurella | (Brighton – Chelsea, 2022) | £55m |
Gvardiol has a release clause in excess of 110m euros (£94.35m), but that cannot be triggered until next summer.
German football expert Jasmine Baba told BBC Radio Manchester’s We’re Not Really Here: “It’s a lot of money, but I can see why his release clause is that high.
“Leipzig have said they are not going to sell for less when they know they can get this amount of money for him next summer. He is worth that much in the current market for a number of reasons.”
How will Gvardiol fit in at City?
Gvardiol, who is 6ft 1in tall, is a left-sided central defender, and City feel he could feature in a back three or in a four-man defence.
With Guardiola’s management it is hard to always gauge what might happen. Gvardiol is primarily a centre-back, who has also played at left-back on occasion.
John Stones, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji were considered to be central defenders too – but Ake and Akanji played some of last season at full-back and Stones ended the campaign in a hybrid midfield role.
Gvardiol’s statistics in the Bundesliga last season are comparable to City’s current centre-back contingent. His passing accuracy is slightly lower, but he made more interventions and won possession more often.
| Gvardiol | Laporte | Stones | Akanji | Ake | Dias | |
| Touches | 100.5 | 95.3 | 83.3 | 88.9 | 95.5 | 102.1 |
| Passes | 88.7 | 85.8 | 73.6 | 79.6 | 81.8 | 93.4 |
| Passing accuracy | 89.3% | 93.1% | 93.3% | 93.3% | 91.1% | 92.7% |
| Interceptions | 1.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1 | 0.8 |
| Possession won | 6.9 | 5 | 4.4 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 4.5 |
| Tackles | 1 | 1 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1 |
In Europe’s top five leagues, only four defenders touched the ball more times per 90 minutes than Gvardiol.
City’s Ruben Dias topped the list, while Benjamin Pavard, Jordi Alba and Dayot Upamecano – from Guardiola’s old teams Bayern Munich and Barcelona – were also above Gvardiol.
One of Gvardiol’s five goals for Leipzig was a header against City in the Champions League last 16 first leg this year.
“He’s fast, intense, dynamic, really good at changing directions and really good at transitioning from attack and defence and vice versa,” said Baba.
“He’s a really good, agile defender and his strength is in passing while he’s in possession – even under pressure he still finds solutions to play it forward.
“John Stones has been pushed into more of a midfielder – I can see that happening with Gvardiol too.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer why someone like Pep Guardiola would want him. He really is a dream prospect at his young age.”
Who is Gvardiol and is he a proven winner?
The defender already has four years of first-team experience with Dinamo Zagreb and Leipzig and has won a domestic cup in each of the past three seasons – in 2021 in Croatia and in the 2022 and 2023 German Cups.
He was very close to joining Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United in 2020 but moved to Leipzig instead.
“Gvardiol is the best central defender in the world. He’s so mature. The way he plays, with the grace he controls the ball, it’s amazing,” said Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic last year.
Gvardiol helped Croatia reach the World Cup semi-finals and scored in their third-place play-off win over Morocco.
Only three players at the World Cup played more successful passes than Gvardiol’s 463. City’s Rodri led the way. Gvardiol ranked sixth for touches of the ball (612).
Gvardiol made more clearances than any other player in Qatar with 37, and he was joint second, level with recent City target Declan Rice, for interceptions with 11. He also ranked fifth for headed clearances (14).
