The 24-year-old Sane is viewed as one of Germany’s brightest talents and has scored five goals in 21 appearances for his country. He won the Premier League title with City in 2017/18 and 2018/19.
He seemed to be on the verge of joining Bayern last August before he tore his cruciate knee ligament during the Community Shield match against Liverpool at Wembley, holding up a possible move. Bundesliga champions Bayern were so confident they would sign him last summer they had to apologise for the Blues for their public brashness.
Last month, Sane admitted the devastating injury was the “longest and hardest” of his career, describing the road to recovery as both mentally and physically gruelling. Sane returned to training and played a game for City’s reserves in March before the Premier League fixtures were halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Teammate lkay Gundogan recently revealed that Sane is continuing his rehabilitation process in the gym while the UK is under lockdown. Still, Sane has been a world class performer for much of his time at the Etihad Stadium and his departure could be a big blow for the club as finding a replacement for reasonable money won’t be an easy task.
Before injury struck, Sane’s rumoured switch to Munich had involved a reported transfer fee in excess of 100mn euros ($109mn).
Bayern want Sane after wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery both retired at the end of last season. “The interest of FC Bayern is no secret, but other very big European teams have already contacted us about Leroy,” Smoljan added, with Barcelona and Real Madrid also said to be interested. Bayern haven’t lifted Europe’s premier club competition since 2013, although they had won every single game in this year’s edition before football came to a halt.
In this season’s Champions League last 16 ties, Bayern beat Chelsea 3-0 in London while City ran out 2-1 winners over Real Madrid in Spain before both second legs were postponed due to the coronavirus.