Kevin De Bruyne will not submit an official transfer request to Wolfsburg in an attempt to force through a move to Manchester City, his agent has confirmed.
City, who first identified the Belgium midfielder as a key transfer target for the summer at the start of the year, are still yet to receive an official response to the £47m bid lodged with the Bundesliga side last week having originally offered £35m.
Wolfsburg have so far insisted that they are not interested in selling a player signed last January from Chelsea for £18m, although it is understood that they would be wiling to do business at around £50m.
City had hoped that De Bruyne would push for a move by making clear to his current club that he wants to move back to the Premier League but the 24-year-old’s agent Patrick De Koster has insisted he has no intention of handing in a transfer request.
“There is no way we would do something like that – we have a good relationship with Wolfsburg and a transfer request is not something that happens in Germany,” he told Guardian sport.
“At this stage we have not received a call to say that any bid has been accepted and until we do Kevin will stay where he is.”
Transfer requests have become commonplace in English football in the modern era but that culture has yet to spread to the Bundesliga.
De Koster also confirmed that De Bruyne was absent from training on Tuesday over a “personal issue”, with Wolfsburg posting a picture of him on their official Twitter feed on Wednesday as the side prepare for their first Bundesliga game of the season against Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday.
Bayern Munich also continue to retain an interest in signing De Bruyne, although it is understood the German champions have proposed a deal for him to arrive at the start of next season.
