{"id":7366,"date":"2025-02-07T05:52:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T05:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T05:52:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T05:52:43","slug":"nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/","title":{"rendered":"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gonzalez takes Man City’s spend to \u00a3180m – how they dominated window<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n

\"Nico<\/picture><\/span>Image source, <\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/p>

Image caption, <\/span><\/p>\n

Nico Gonzalez has won nine caps with Spain’s under-21s<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Bobbie Jackson<\/p>\n

BBC Sport Journalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Manchester City have signed Porto midfielder Nico Gonzalez for \u00a350m to take their January spending to \u00a3180m.<\/b><\/p>\n

It is the second biggest outlay worldwide in January window history behind Chelsea’s \u00a3274m in 2023, according to Transfermarkt, external<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez is City’s fifth signing of the winter transfer window and has penned a four-and-a-half-year contract.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Spaniard began his senior career with Barcelona in 2019 and joined Porto in July 2023.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez has scored nine goals and laid on nine assists in 68 appearances for Porto and won the Portuguese Cup last season.<\/p>\n

“This is the perfect opportunity for me at this stage of my career,” Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

“I am 23 and I want to test myself in England. There’s no better club than Manchester City for me to do that.<\/p>\n

“Look at the squad they have here – it’s unbelievable, full of world-class players. There isn’t a footballer in the world who would not want to be part of this set-up.”<\/p>\n

City sit fifth in the Premier League, 15 points adrift of leaders Liverpool, following Sunday’s 5-1 defeat at Arsenal.<\/p>\n

They have been without Ballon d’Or winner Rodri in midfield since he suffered a major knee injury in September.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Gonzalez scored in a 1-0 win against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League to help Porto through to the knockout phase play-offs.<\/p>\n

“I know the reputation Pep [Guardiola] has and I cannot wait to work with him. In fact, I am honoured he wants me to play in his team,” Gonzalez added.<\/p>\n

City have already signed Egypt forward Omar Marmoush<\/a>, Brazilian defender Vitor Reis<\/a>, Uzbekistan defender Abdukodir Khusanov<\/a> and Sierra Leonean defender Juma Bah, who has since been loaned out to Lens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

‘Good player, but gobsmacked by the fee’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

City signing Gonzalez is the latest example of the club’s enduring connection with Barcelona. The 23-year-old is a graduate of La Masia, and made his senior debut in 2021.<\/p>\n

He made 37 first-team appearances for the Catalan club before spending the 2022-23 season on loan at Valencia. In July 2023 he joined Porto in a deal worth about \u00a37m.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez was initially seen as a holding midfielder – Barca B manager Garcia Pimienta described him as “the heir to Busquets” – but by 2023 then-Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez saw him more as an box-to-box player.<\/p>\n

At Porto, Gonzalez has played in a double midfield pivot and further forward, scoring five goals and providing five assists in 17 league games this season.<\/p>\n

“He’s quite an all-rounder, he can play deep but he’s more effective further forward and especially when breaking into the box,” says founder of PortuGOAL Tom Kundert. “He’s scored regularly with late runs and one-touch finishes.”<\/p>\n

City’s midfield has struggled in the absence of the injured Rodri, with a lack of physicality abundantly clear during the 5-1 defeat by Arsenal on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The 6ft 2in Gonzalez could help in that department, though he is not a single pivot and isn’t a like-for-like replacement for Rodri.<\/p>\n

“He’s a completely different player to Rodri, the two cannot be compared, either in quality or playing style,” says Kundert.<\/p>\n

“He’s stood out at Porto. Normally that would mean a lot but this is the worst Porto team in 40 years.<\/p>\n

“That said, it’s not his fault and he’s been just about the only Porto player who has maintained a high performance level over the last couple of seasons. He’s a good player but I have to say I was gobsmacked by the fee.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\"A<\/picture><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n

City open up cheque book<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

City’s spending almost outweighs that of the rest of the Premier League clubs combined, with the acquisition of Gonzalez taking their outlay to about \u00a3180m.<\/p>\n

It is still well short of City’s biggest-ever window when they handed over \u00a3225m in the summer of 2017 to bring in Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Ederson, Danilo and Douglas Luiz.<\/p>\n

Centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov was the first through the Etihad doors during this window, with City paying \u00a333.6m to Lens for a player who only cost the French club \u00a384,000 in July 2023.<\/p>\n

Palmeiras defender Reis arrived for \u00a329.6m, despite the 19-year-old only making 22 senior career appearances and Marmoush, who scored 15 goals in 17 Bundesliga appearances this season for Eintracht Frankfurt, was the third signing for \u00a359m.<\/p>\n

Bah joined from Real Valladolid in controversial circumstances after the Spanish club accused City of encouraging the 18-year-old to break his contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

City’s huge investment in the squad comes as they still wait to discover if they will face any punishment for 115 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.<\/p>\n

“Manchester City have been very successful financially over recent years,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Radio 5 Live.<\/p>\n

“Under these profitability and sustainability rules, you are allowed to lose \u00a3105m over a rolling three-year period. City have probably made somewhere in the region of \u00a3160-170m worth of profit because there has been an awful lot of players leaving the club – as well as the benefits of qualifying for Europe every year, the bonuses from sponsors and broadcasters for winning all of these trophies. From a financial perspective, they are in a really strong position.<\/p>\n

“The 115 charges relates to the period 2009-2018, so that, to a certain extent, is ancient history. When it does come to pass that we get a judgement, we will have to have a complete reset I think in what they can spend going forwards.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Pick your Man City XI<\/h2>\n

Choose your Man City starting XI including January signings<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Related topics<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n

More on this story<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gonzalez takes Man City’s spend to \u00a3180m – how they dominated window Image source,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epl-transfer-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder - Football World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder - Football World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gonzalez takes Man City’s spend to \u00a3180m – how they dominated window Image source,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Football World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-07T05:52:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-07T05:52:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"football\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"football\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/\",\"name\":\"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder - Football World\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-07T05:52:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-07T05:52:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5707832026bf64d59dec7be926297e16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg\",\"width\":240,\"height\":135,\"caption\":\"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Football World\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5707832026bf64d59dec7be926297e16\",\"name\":\"football\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b0691a91d5a34e698cb717d2ef112912a8d6c7a4915bfb19e024c52340afe5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b0691a91d5a34e698cb717d2ef112912a8d6c7a4915bfb19e024c52340afe5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"football\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/author\/football\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder - Football World","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder - Football World","og_description":"Gonzalez takes Man City’s spend to \u00a3180m – how they dominated window Image source,…","og_url":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/","og_site_name":"Football World","article_published_time":"2025-02-07T05:52:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-07T05:52:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":240,"height":135,"url":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"football","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"football","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/","url":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/","name":"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder - Football World","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-07T05:52:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-07T05:52:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5707832026bf64d59dec7be926297e16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/7366-nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder.jpg","width":240,"height":135,"caption":"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/nico-gonzalez-manchester-city-complete-signing-of-porto-midfielder\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nico Gonzalez: Manchester City Complete Signing Of Porto Midfielder"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/","name":"Football World","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5707832026bf64d59dec7be926297e16","name":"football","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b0691a91d5a34e698cb717d2ef112912a8d6c7a4915bfb19e024c52340afe5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b0691a91d5a34e698cb717d2ef112912a8d6c7a4915bfb19e024c52340afe5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"football"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/author\/football\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}