Manchester City are poised to complete the signing of Sávio from Girona, well Troyes, but we’ll come onto that part shortly!
Brazilian journalist Jorge Nicola has reported the fee will be £25 million (€30 million), as translated by Lucas Sposito in Sport Witness, with 12.5% of this fee going to his former club Atlético Mineiro.
The deal will be completed as soon as Copa América concludes, with Sávio part of Brazil’s squad stateside, helping them reach the quarter-finals, hoping to go significantly further of course.
Sávio: A product of City Football Group’s global footprint
Having broken through at Atlético Mineiro as a teenager, winning both the Brasileirão title and Copa do Brasil, Sávio was signed by City Football Group in 2022 for around £10 million and, as Marcelo Cardoso and Rodrigo Fonseca put it in Globo, he was ‘assigned’ to French club Troyes.
This makes him Troyes’ all-time record signing but, as far as we know, he’s never even set foot in France, spending a season on loan at PSV Eindhoven, having little impact, before an outstanding campaign on loan at Girona, also owned by CFG, scoring 11 goals and providing ten assists as Blanquivermells finished third in La Liga, qualifying for the Champions League.
As of 1 July, he is technically a Troyes player again, but he’ll never be seen donning a blue shirt at Stade de l’Aube, especially given that the club were only spared back-to-back relegations, thereby dropping into Championnat National, following Ajaccio’s bankruptcy.
So, Troyes have rather been exploited in this whole transaction, hence why their supporters are protesting against CFG at every game, although they are at least set to receive over £25 million, well in theory at least.
Can Sávio improve Manchester City’s team?
If you’ve never seen Sávio play, he’s a very exciting left-footed winger, usually deployed on the left by Míchel at Girona last season, but is also able to play on the right too.
At international level, he made his debut for Brazil as a late substitute against England at Wembley in March, doing enough, as alluded to earlier, to get into Dorival Júnior’s squad for the ongoing Copa América.
After another short cameo against Costa Rica in their opener at SoFi Stadium, Sávio started against Paraguay at Allegiant Stadium four days later, marking the occasion with a goal on the cusp of half time in Las Vegas as the Seleção prevailed 4-1.
As ever, Brazil are expected to go all the way at Copa América, desperate to be featuring in the final at Hard Rock Stadium on 14 July; whenever they exit, straight after, Sávio will fly to Manchester to complete his move to the team top of the City Football Group food-chain.
While he’s unlikely to start for the Sky Blues straight away, he will certainly be a useful player for Pep Guardiola to have at his disposal.
