Leroy Sane facing familiar questions as winger returns to Man City with Bayern Munich

Leroy Sane returns to Manchester as a Bayern Munich player this evening, approaching three years since leaving Manchester City.

The Germany international headed home in the summer of 2020 after spending four seasons at City. Sane won every domestic trophy, including two Premier Leagues and Carabao Cups, alongside manager Pep Guardiola.

A Schalke academy product, the winger was linked with Bayern ahead of the 2019/20 season before a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered during that year's Community Shield against Liverpool postponed a move by 12 months. City offered the player a contract extension, but Sane turned it down in favour of a move to Munich.

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At the time, reports that a desire to return to Germany fuelled Sane's desire to leave City for Bayern. Concerns about playing time as Guardiola regularly rotated the winger with Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez in the starting line-up, were also a factor. The perennial German champions also offered Sane a significantly more lucrative contract than City, with claims the deal more than doubled what he was on in Manchester and was worth €22 million each season.

City received €49million up front from Bayern, with €11m agreed in potential add-ons to take the total fee towards the €60m (£55m) mark. It represented a tidy profit on the initial £37 million paid by City.

"It wasn't easy," Sane told SportBild in July 2020. "Pep Guardiola and this fantastic team are why I moved to Manchester. But I wanted to do something new. The concept and the plans of FC Bayern were the best match for my ideas. That's why I came to my decision. The Bayern system really fits me perfectly. Wingers characterise Bayern’s game; that, of