REVEALED: Man City hijacked Arsenal deal for ‘out of this world’ Vitor Reis

Vitor Reis has officially joined Manchester City, but Arsenal were previously confident of securing his signature, according to a report.

The Brazilian wonderkid has signed for the reigning Premier League champions in a blockbuster €35 million deal with a potential further €5m in bonuses.

It is a significant fee for a player with just one full season of senior football under his belt but it is actually a bargain when compared to the €100m release clause he had at Palmeiras.

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His rise to prominence had been rapid, with Reis only making his debut last June. However, his leadership qualities and defensive nous quickly made him an indispensable part of Abel Ferreira’s squad.

As Marcus Alves has revealed in an article for the BBC, Reis was so highly rated at Palmeiras that they referred to him internally as an ‘ET’ because his talent was deemed to be ‘out of this world.’ There are no doubts in his native Brazil that he will succeed at Man City.

Man City hijacked Reis transfer

Yet things could just as well have panned out differently because Pep Guardiola and company were far from the only ones hot on his trail. Real Madrid and Arsenal were also in talks with Palmeiras over the 19-year-old defender, while Brighton had several bids knocked back.

Indeed, as James McNicholas of The Athletic points out, Arsenal had been very confident of being able to convince Reis to move to north London rather than Manchester or Madrid.

Within Arsenal, there was a belief that Reis could prove to be a transformative signing for the future similar to their acquisition of William Saliba in 2019 and the Gunners put ‘significant work’ into preparing a deal for the teenager.

However, Arsenal felt that there were more pressing issues to resolve first and put a transfer of Reis on the back burner, which allowed City to swoop in and snap him up.

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Man City’s incoming new director of football Hugo Viana also had a critical role to play in the transfer as he is a close personal friend of the aforementioned Palmeiras coach Abel Ferreira.

In fact, Ferreira recently admitted that he ‘talked too much’ with Viana about his former protégé. “Maybe we sold Vitor because I talked too much with whom I shouldn’t have. It happens,” the Portuguese said before acknowledging that the young defender ‘deserves’ his transfer.