Joao Cancelo to Bayern Munich was a few years in the making

In a stunning move, Bayern Munich has reportedly acquired Manchester City fullback Joao Cancelo. As of now, it is believed that it will be a loan arrangement with an option to buy for the Bavarians. According to the Jack Gaughan of the Daily Mail, the option to buy could be as much as €70 million:

Cancelo can play both right-back and left-back, but it appears that this move could be the first step in closing out the career of Benjamin Pavard at Bayern Munich. Disgruntled and talking openly about leaving, Bayern Munich has now greased the pathway for the Frenchman to make that happen during the summer transfer window as his playing time could get slashed.

But what about Noussair Mazraoui? Could the Moroccan defender’s post-COVID ailment be more serious that initially anticipated? What of Josip Stanišić? Well, this certainly does not bode well for him. Is Matthijs de Ligt facing a suspension from his time with Juventus? At this point, it is unclear what outcome that situation yield.

For the short-term, there appears to be enough of a reason for Bayern Munich to take a chance on Cancelo. For the long-term — should the club keep him permanently — there will be some roster fall out in many forms if Bayern Munich decides to shell out what seems to be an absolute ton of money for Cancelo.

This move, however, probably shouldn’t be a total surprise to those who have followed Bayern Munich’s transfer rumors over the years. Back in 2019, Bayern Munich first became interested in Cancelo when he was with Juventus. The Bavarians maintained interest in him even after his move to Manchester City as well. Moreover, just last year, Cancelo was identified as one of Julian Nagelsmann’s “dream players” by Sport Bild.

It could even be theorized that the initial interest was spurred during the summer of 2018 when Cancelo faced off with a stripped down, traveling Bayern Munich squad at the International Champions Cup match in Philadelphia. From that point, it was just a year later where we started to see the Bavarians and Cancelo linked together in the rumor mill.

Now, though, the only question that remains is if this will be the start of a long-term partnership or just a short-term fix to a few potential problems.