Brazil-born water carrier is now a naturalised Portugal international.
FC Porto holding midfielder Fernando is prepared to sacrifice his dreams of playing at this summer’s Fifa World Cup finals in his homeland in order to seal his move to Manchester City at the end of the season, according to reports in the Manchester Evening News.
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The former Brazil Under-20 international very nearly moved to Eastlands on transfer deadline day, only for City to run out of time to compete the deal fer window closed for business on Friday night.
However, it is understood that the defensive midfielder has since signed a pre-contract agreement with the mega-rich Premier League club that will see Fernando move to the north west this week, by which point the player will be a free agent, with his contract with the Portuguese champions running out in June.
The problem for the 26-year-old though is that Porto are now believed to be trying to pressurise their star man into agreeing a new long-term deal at the Dragao, and are even prepared to sideline Fernando for the rest of this season unless he agrees to put pen to paper on that deal.
And if that scenario does happen, then Fernando’s dreams of featuring for his adopted county at this summer’s World Cup will be over.
Antonio Araujo