Yannick Carrasco wants a move back to Europe, potentially Bayern Munich

Yannick Carrasco moved from Atletico Madrid to Chinese Super League side Dalian Yifang for a fee of approximately €10.5 million in the winter of 2018. The Belgian international has scored 7 goals and provided 2 assists in 10 appearances this season for the Chinese club, but he’s recently been suspended for disciplinary reasons and has not for the last three matches.

Per a recent report by Bild, Carrasco purposely skipped out on the recent league match against Heibi Fortune and has shown a complete lack of effort in training sessions as of late. Teammate and goalkeeper Ziqian Yu took to social media to criticize Carrasco for his attitude. Yu claimed that the Belgian purposely picked up a fourth (cumulative in the season) yellow card against Shanghai Shenhua in order to be suspended for the match against Shanghai SIPG:

You’re the star, and you do good work, but you can’t win by yourself. When we played against Shanghai Shenhua, you deliberately got a fourth yellow card so that you’d be suspended against Shanghai SIPG gesperrt and so can go back to Europe earlier.

He went on to lambaste Carrasco’s lackluster work rate in training sessions, suggesting:

Now that you’re back, you barely move in training. During games, you just stand around. You don’t attack and you don’t defend — the atmosphere in training is totally poisoned.

When Carrasco was with the Beligan national team for their Euro 2020 qualifying matches back in the beginning of June, he admitted that he was not enjoying life in China and wanted to move back to Europe. He said it would be best for his family if he were to return to Europe and that there are already some offers on the table:

It’s not that I don’t like soccer in China. But I’d like to play in Europe again from a family perspective. It’s hard for us to adapt. There’s an offer on the table, and negotiations with my agent are going well. The club that wants me is doing the utmost to get me. They accept the basic conditions that Dalian Yifang has set.

A potential backup plan for Bayern if Leroy Sané falls through?

Bild concluded by saying that both Arsenal and Bayern Munich are potentially interested in signing Carrasco this summer. For Bayern, Leroy Sané has been the main target since the summer transfer window has opened, but it’s still unclear how realistic an option that is for Bayern. If Sane really wants to leave Manchester City, what would the price would be? And would Bayern be content to sign him as the only other transfer after Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez?

With the departures of both Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, it’s obvious that Bayern need to invest in a wide attacking player so that Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry are not the only two natural players for that position in the squad. Sané fits the bill perfectly, but if that falls through, Carrasco could prove to be a decent alternative.

With Atletico Madrid, Carrasco predominantly played as either a left or right winger, scoring a total of 23 goals and providing 17 assists from 124 appearances across competitions. At only 25 years of age, he already has the experience in top level matches and he scored Atletico’s lone goal in the 2016 Champions League final against Real Madrid, which they lost 6-4 on penalties. It’s easy to argue that he’s probably a class below a player like Sane, but with experience he has, he could be a viable backup option for Bayern.

A look at some of Carrasco’s best bits:

What does everyone think?