Man City eye multi-million-pound windfall in UEFA Super Cup meeting with Sevilla
Manchester City stand to make €5m (£4.3m) if they can beat Sevilla in tonight’s UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday night.
Pep Guardiola’s team are in Piraeus, Greece for the annual meeting of Champions League winners and Europa League victors and another piece of silverware would boost the club’s coffers again.
Last season’s treble was worth an estimated £250m to City. They banked about £170m in prize money for winning a fifth Premier League in six seasons. Winning the Champions League final was worth about £95m – though £90m was guaranteed for reaching the showdown with Inter Milan - while only £4m came from beating neighbours United in the final.
The losers of Wednesday's game are set to make €3m (£2.6m) for taking part. A sell-out crowd of 33,000 is expected at the Karaiskakis Stadium near Athens but one of City’s biggest stars will be absent after Kevin De Bruyne was ruled out for up to four months following another severe hamstring injury.
The Belgian is set to undergo surgery having come off in the league curtain-raiser against Burnley last Friday with an injury that is understood to have been a reoccurrence of the issue that affected him late last season and brought his Champions League final to a premature end.
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“It’s a serious injury,” Guardiola said yesterday. "We have to decide if he needs surgery or no surgery but he will be out for a few months. The decision on surgery will be taken in the coming days and could see him miss three or four months. We could say don't play but this injury could happen later. Before I took the decision I spoke to the doctor, the physio and him. He said he felt good.
Kevin De Bruyne re-injured a hamstring against Burnley last Friday. (Peter Powell/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)"I have to say the injury for Kevin is a blow for us. It's a big loss. Kevin has specific qualities which you can lose for one or two games but, for a long time, it is really tough for us. At the same time you have to look forward, you have alternatives there - of course different skills, as the skills from Kevin are irreplaceable.
"We have a different talent of players and this is an opportunity; life gives you that. When there is an injury there is an opportunity for the other one, so I'm pretty sure they will take it."
De Bruyne’s injury is likely to see City submit an improved offer for West Ham ’s Lucas Paqueta. A bid of more than £80m was rejected last week and the east London club are likely to hold out for at least £100m.
Asked if City will try and bring in reinforcements before the transfer window closes, Guardiola said: "We will see. After what happened we will see the possibilities."
City will also likely be without defender Aymeric Laporte after the club accepted a bid from Saudi club Al-Nassr. Laporte had fallen out of favour last season and City have just signed Josko Gvardiol in a £77m deal.
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