Napoli's Jorginho wanted by many English clubs, but could be heading to Manchester City

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Bengaluru, May 19: Even before the 2017/18 season ends in Europe, transfer rumors have started doing the rounds already. The biggest among them right now is that of the potential transfer of Jorginho, Napoli's highly-rated rated midfielder, who is being linked with almost every top Premier League club.

The Brazil-born Italy international has had an impressive season as Napoli finished second behind Juventus in the Serie A this season. He is reportedly quoting interest from Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur as well. City are supposedly leading the line currently after reports of Jose Mourinho dropping the player down his wishlist appeared.

It is reported that Napoli owner Aurelio de Laurentiis would like to cash in on the player, who is contracted with the Serie A club until 2020. Initially, the price tag was reported to be around £45 million, but it has now raised to around £60m amidst the growing interest. Jorginho had joined Napoli for €10m from Hellas Verona in January 2014.

The Times has also reported that the 26-year-old recently told his friends that Maurizio Sarri would want him at Chelsea if he were to join them. Sarri has been linked with the Chelsea job for quite a while now as Antonio Conte’s exit looks certain after The Blues failed to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Pep Guardiola is also an admirer of the player, who played the highest number of passes (94.7) in Europe’s top 5 leagues at an accuracy of 89.8% this season. Jorginho also made an impressive 1.5 interceptions per game this season. With Fernandinho not getting any younger at 33 and Yaya Toure leaving, the English champions would certainly look to strengthen their squad immediately.

The midfielder had a tough start to his Napoli career as he tried to break into Rafa Benitez’s team but has been a constant under Sarri. He plays as a defensive midfielder in the Partenopi’s midfield three, which is similar to that of City’s. He has a great reading of the game and can see moves coming through before the passes are even made, thus, also having fabulous distribution ability. But he is not the most physical one and will have to cope with the rest of the Premier League in that respect.

The player’s agent Joao Santos recently had said there had been approaches from multiple Premier League sides but there was no bid in place yet and concluded by saying that Jorginho is unlikely to play for any other Italian side if he was to leave Napoli. The Italy international is arguably the most complete midfielder available on the transfer market and is likely to be the subject of another money-charged transfer race among the Premier League’s big six.