Spain international Nolito has agreed to join Manchester City on a three-year deal as soon as Euro 2016 ends giving Pep Guardiola his first big attacking signing of the summer.
As Sportsmail revealed on Sunday the Manchester City manager had told City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain to close a deal for the Celta Vigo forward as soon as he became aware Barcelona were wavering in their pursuit.
The former Barca B striker whose buy-out clause means he is available for just £14.1million (€18m) was in Spain’s starting line-up for Tuesday’s third group game against Croatia and went into the match with a record of five goals and four assists in 12 games for his country.
Guardiola sees him as capable of playing in a City front-three alongside fellow Spain star David Silva and Sergio Aguero but also capable of playing through the middle and generally being a hugely valuable player at such a bargain price.
Barcelona almost signed Nolito in January but could not afford the fee at the time.
Coach Luis Enrique is a massive fan and has worked with the player both when he coached Barca B and when he managed Celta Vigo.
But he has encountered opposition from the Barca board baulking at spending on a player who will be 30 in October and who would primarily be back-up for Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.
The player is also understood to have seen his path to regular football blocked by Barca’s big three forwards and been convinced by the City option as soon as he was informed of Guardiola’s interest.
Nolito, full-name Manuel Agudo Duran, was given his full Barcelona debut back in 2010 by Guardiola.
He joined the club in 2008 to play for the B-team but was called for the first team two seasons later coming on for Pedro in a Copa del Rey game.
He showed enough at the club to be offered a first team contract but he wanted regular first team football and that was always going to be more likely away from the Camp Nou.
He went to Benfica in 2011 where he made a goalscoring start with two goals against Trabzonspor in the preliminary round of the Champions League.
He also impressed Arsene Wenger in a friendly scoring and assisting as Benfica beat Arsenal 2-1 in a friendly. Wenger has even looked at him this summer as an alternative to Jamie Vardy but, like Luis Enrique, he has been beaten to the punch by Guardiola.
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