Open bar to celebrate ten years of business between Girona and City

GironaFlorian Lejeune and Rubén Sobrino have been involved with Vitor Reis for ten years between Manchester City and Girona. Lejeune and Sobrino were the first, at the end of August 2015, and Reyes is expected to arrive in the coming hours, as the third summer signing and the first loan signing from England. Both clubs are negotiating to ensure the Brazilian's arrival isn't the only one, with winger Claudio Echeverri in their sights. But the Argentine needs convincing, because Roma also want him, and the player seems more inclined to go to the Italian capital than to Montilivi.

Reyes's signing is oil in a lamp for Míchel's team, who will have a great talent in the center back with the potential to be important immediately. Reyes arrived in Manchester last January from Palmeiras, for whom City paid around €37 million. At 19 years old, those who have seen him play rave about the player's performance with the ball at his feet. An aspect that the Girona coach considers fundamental to his style of play, in which the first commandment is that coming out from the back must be done by playing, not by chasing. Pep Guardiola endorses the deal, knowing that Girona is the ideal place for Reyes to gain experience.

Claudio Echeverri is the other prominent name being worked on intensively. Between Girona and City, there is absolute understanding, but the appearance of the Roman team distracts the player, who doesn't see himself ending up in Catalonia at all. The English team clearly prioritizes him playing at Montilivi, because they have reason to believe that the player could find it the ideal launching pad. It's inevitable to fall into nostalgia and think about the impact that Savinho made, a star now firmly established in the rotation. cityzen. For Echeverri, City paid 18.5 million.

Between Reyes and Echeverri, Girona would have a check for 55.5 million euros, unaffordable if not for the relationship between the two entities and UEFA's flexibility, which allows City and Girona to operate freely this summer when they initially couldn't. Since they were in the Champions League last season, the European body decided they wouldn't operate together during three transfer windows (in the summer of 2024 and January and summer of 2025). However, the clubs very cleverly argued that, coinciding with the Club World Cup, a new transfer window had opened. Those ten days are crucial: UEFA validated them as a third window, and Vitor Reis is now flying to Girona.

Twenty-five transactions in a decade

Over the course of this decade of loan spells between City and Girona, 25 deals have been recorded for Montilivi. Reyes will be the 26th. There have been all sorts, of course: from extraordinary loans—such as the three spells for Pablo Maffeo and Yan Couto, or that of Yangel Herrera, culminating in a transfer—to absolute flops, such as forwards Kayode and Marlos Moreno, goalkeeper Muric, and winger Darío Sarmiento. Some notable names have been repeated, such as Aleix Garcia, Douglas Luiz, and Pablo Moreno, while others have never even made their debut.

Chidiebere Nwakali and Angeliño Tasende had brief spells at Montilivi. The most Nwakali managed was to be called up for a Segunda match in Mallorca, and Angeliño didn't even get that: after a few training sessions and seeing that Machín didn't include him in any squad, he got angry, decided to leave where he had come from, and the loan was canceled. This does not include operations with satellite teams, such as the aforementioned Savinho (Troyes) or Taty Castellanos (New York City).