Manchester City could lose Pep Guardiola favourite to Bayern Munich
By Evan Curnew
![Manchester City, Stefan Ortega (Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images) Manchester City, Stefan Ortega (Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/81efa0f16430aa4113d624326b521f860973532eb5cdf260cccbecafaca1da39.jpg)
Bayern Munich is still searching for a starting keeper after the departure of Yann Sommer to Inter and Manuel Neuer remaining injured. As The Top Flight has covered, Kepa originally looked set to join Bayern Munich from Chelsea but has made the switch to Spanish outfit Real Madrid. Now, Bayern Munich want to turn their attention to another Premier League keeper, this time from Manchester City.
Florian Plettenberg of Sky Germany is reporting that Manchester City’s Stefan Ortega is now Bayern’s top keeper option. Bayern executives have held talks about Ortega as a signing for the club and have been in contact with the keeper’s camp recently. What will make it difficult for Bayern Munich to sign Stefan Ortega is that Pep Guardiola really likes him and would like to extend his contract at Manchester City.
"Pep: “We don’t want to sell him and we don’t want to loan him. I’m sorry, but we want him for long time”.Pep: “It always depends on three parties yes but we’d have to go back on market to find a replacement in two weeks… we want Ortega”. [Source]"
Stefan Ortega was a phenomenal backup keeper to Ederson last season. He started every match for Manchester City in the FA Cup en route to the club winning the trophy over rivals Manchester United. He also was the club’s keeper for the EFL Cup and had a brief spell of starts in the Premier League. It is expected Ortega will be the number-one keeper for cup competitions again, and he also started for Manchester City in the FA Community Shield, losing to Arsenal on penalties.
Should Stefan Ortega make the switch to Bayern, he’s not a stranger to the Bundesliga. It’s where City signed him from after he had impressed on what was otherwise a very poor Arminia Bielefield side. The German keeper has played most of his professional career in the second tier of Germany, including playing for historic rivals of Bayen, 1860 Munchen.