Dortmund call out Sport over Gundogan City story

Borussia Dortmund have taken Spanish publication Sport to task for claiming their midfielder Ilkay Gundogan intends to sign for Manchester City.

Germany international Gundogan, whose contract with Dortmund expires at the end of next season, has been linked to a host of leading European clubs over recent months.

Sport reported the 25-year-old has been in touch with Barcelona since last close-season but informed the Spanish, European and world champions that he wished to join City when Pep Guardiola takes charge of the Premier League side ahead of 2016-17.

The story also included claims Dortmund and City have reached a transfer agreement over Gundogan, but the Bundesliga club denied the any knowledge of such a deal when they replied to Sport through their official Twitter account.

.@sport Really? We should know about that, shouldn’t we? Truth is, we don’t know anything about that.

— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) February 19, 2016

The Dortmund reply read: “Really? We should know about that, shouldn’t we? Truth is, we don’t know anything about that.”

Last week, Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel confirmed talks over an extended contract for Gundogan were ongoing but conceded the current interest in the player meant negotiations were “not very easy”.