Mauro Zarate is reportedly a €30 million target for Manchester City after his agent confirmed that the club have shown interest.
The striker, who impressed on loan at Birmingham last season, is currently at Lazio but his registration is owned by the Qatari club Al Sadd.
His representative, Jose Alberti, has revealed City are preparing a bid to bring him to Eastlands.
Alberti said: “The Arabs who own the club are interested in him. We spoke last month and they told me they were ready to offer €30 million to buy him.
“Their aim is to get to the same level as Real Madrid were at during the ‘galactico’ era. But the player is Lazio’s to lose. Mauro loves Rome and will sign a permanent deal as long as the club make a suitable offer.”
Meanwhile, City manager Mark Hughes has admitted he has received ”tentative enquiries” about some of his players but insists he will not let anyone leave without signing a replacement first.
”We’ve had tentative enquiries, no offers or bids,” Hughes told City’s official website. ”I’m not really in a position to allow players to go before we get players in given the amount of players we have unavailable at the moment.
”I’d much prefer to get players in rather than letting players go out first.”
