Kevin De Bruyne's agent has revealed that the Belgium international agreed terms with Bayern Munich before signing for Manchester City, and may well have joined the Bundesliga champions had they met Wolfsburg's asking price.
De Bruyne, 24, has thrived on his return to the Premier League after the former Chelsea midfielder eventually moved from Wolfsburg to City in a £54 million switch last August.
The playmaker was highly sought after last summer and his agent Patrick De Koster has now shed more light on how Bayern, City and Paris Saint-Germain battled it out for his signature.
"We knew that the contract would be substantial," De Koster told Sport/Foot Magazine in Belgium. "PSG were ready to put a lot on the table.
"For Kevin it was the chance to live in a magnificent city, to be close to Belgium and to develop alongside super players, but the lack of appeal of the French league tipped the scales.
"For a long time Kevin's heart was beating for the Bundesliga where he broke through at Bremen before really excelling with Wolfsburg. I think that if Bayern were able to pay the asking price, he would be there today.
"With Bayern, I'm going to make this public for the first time, we reached an agreement after the second meeting. It's over the transfer fee that it collapsed. I think that Bayern were ready to go as far as €50m but not any higher."
De Bruyne recently spoke of how much he is enjoying playing in an attacking City team, and De Koster said his client has not had any regrets about his choice of club.
"Today Kev is really happy with his choice because he's settled in at an incredible speed, both on the pitch and outside, where he's already found a house," De Koster added.
Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said last November that the new Premier League TV deal -- worth £5.136 billion between 2016-19 -- poses a "great threat to all other European leagues," adding that there will come a time "when it will get difficult for Bayern to withstand the money pressure from England."