Joao Cancelo has completed his move to Bayern Munich – and the Manchester City statement suggests he might have played his final game for the club.
Cancelo has joined Bayern on loan until the end of the season with the German club holding the option to make it permanent for £61.5million. The 28-year-old full-back moved on January transfer deadline day after falling out with City manager Pep Guardiola.
Guardiola had left Cancelo on the bench for the past three City matches after criticising his dip in performances since the World Cup. Cancelo was furious with his fall down the pecking order, behind 18-year-old academy graduate Rico Lewis, and asked his agent Jorge Mendes to find him a new club.
The breakdown in the relationship between Guardiola and Cancelo was reflected in the blunt statement the club released on Tuesday. It read: "Joao Cancelo has joined Bayern Munich on loan until the end of the season.
"The 28-year-old joined City from Juventus in 2019, following spells in Spain and his native Portugal. The Portuguese has now moved to Germany to join the Bundesliga outfit for the remainder of the 2022/23 campaign."
Cancelo has made 154 appearances for City since joining from Juventus for £60m three and a half years ago. He was instrumental in helping the club win two Premier League titles and the Carabao Cup.
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Yet it seems as though his time at the club might have ended – just a year after he signed a lucrative two-year contract extension to commit himself to City until June 2027.
Cancelo has posted a video on his Instagram account to commemorate his time with City with the caption: "Once a Cityzen, always a Cityzen. Thank-you." He also responded to comments suggesting his post resembled a farewell message.
He wrote: "I know which video you're talking about. It might have sounded like a farewell but it wasn't meant to be. We have to see what the next five months will bring...I was enjoying my time at #mcfc and am still under contract."
City are understood not to be seeking a replacement for Cancelo in the last few hours of the January window. Guardiola has relied on Lewis, Sergio Gomez, Nathan Ake, Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte to play in the full-back positions recently and he will continue to do so.
Cancelo will get his wish of regular game time at Bayern, where manager Julian Nagelsmann has been searching for a right-back. Benjamin Pavard has been increasingly used in central defence, while Noussair Mazrouai is currently out injured.
Bayern are one point clear of Union Berlin at the top of the Bundesliga table. RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund and Freiburg are all within three points of the Bavarian giants after 18 games.
