Manchester City Transfer News: Latest Rumours on Julian Weigl and Kasper Dolberg

Manchester City are reportedly interested in Borussia Dortmund star Julian Weigl and could be set to offer him four times his current salary in order to land him.

That's according to German outlet Bild (h/t Alex Porter of the Manchester Evening News), with Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan also in pursuit.

The 21-year-old signed for BVB last year and has rapidly established himself as a key player for the Bundesliga outfit, as DW Sports' Stefan Bienkowski noted:

Weigl typically plays in front of the back four and acts as a deep-lying playmaker for Dortmund. He reads the game well for a player of his age, makes use of his exceptional distribution to help build play from the back, recycles possession and knits play together in midfield.

The German also possesses excellent technical skills, and he makes full use of them to avoid incoming tackles or drawing fouls.

Here's a look at his Bundesliga stats for the current campaign, per Squawka:

	Weigl
Apps	11
Tackles	13
Fouls Suffered	27
Take-Ons	11
Headed Duels	16
Interceptions	20
Chances Created	4
Passing Accuracy	91%

Weigl doesn't tend to create much in the way of chances but rather helps more advanced players do so with his incisive passes from deep, and his positional discipline means he rarely pushes far into the final third.

Here's a selection of his highlights from last season:

Weigl is an outstanding candidate to help Pep Guardiola revolutionise the way City play and has all the attributes the Spaniard requires of his players.

He also has great chemistry with Ilkay Gundogan from the Sky Blues midfielder's time at Dortmund.

Bleacher Report UK's Lars Pollmann rued that the two no longer play together week in and week out when they linked up for Germany's national side:

Landing the rising star will undoubtedly be difficult, as he's a key player for Thomas Tuchel, but BVB have seen a number of top performers depart in recent years. Just this summer, they lost Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mats Hummels and Gundogan, not to mention Robert Lewandowski and Mario Gotze in years gone by, so there's hope for City yet—the latter returned to Westfalenstadion in the 2016 summer transfer window, however.

Meanwhile, the Sky Blues will also be boosted by the admission from Kasper Dolberg's agent that Napoli have not confirmed their interest in the Ajax striker.

VI-Images/Getty Images

According to Antonio Giordano of Corriere dello Sport (h/t CalcioMercato.com), the Partenopei are interested in Dolberg, who is also wanted by City and Juventus.

But CalcioMercato.com relayed the following from Dolberg's agent, Jens Steffensen: "I can’t confirm their interest because nobody from the club has contacted me. Dolberg is doing very well as centre-forward but can be also deployed as winger. As of today, however, nobody from Napoli has ever called me, but I’d be happy if they would."

The 19-year-old has emerged this season, netting 11 goals for Ajax in all competitions.

Football writer Michiel Jongsma hailed him after Ajax beat Celta Vigo 3-2 in November:

Dolberg is an excellent dribbler and physically adept, with a ruthless finish and intelligent positioning. He has the makings of a future star.

It appears City will face stiff competition for his signature, but they'll be reassured to know their rivals haven't stolen a march on him just yet.