Manchester City's bid to secure Kevin De Bruyne to a new £350,000-a-week contract has been put on hold following the arrest of the midfielder’s agent.
De Bruyne’s long-term adviser Patrick De Koster is being held by Belgian police after the midfielder asked them to investigate a number of discrepancies in his finances involving millions of pounds.
And that has hit City’s hopes of sealing an agreement to keep the 29-year-old for the peak years of his career in the coming weeks.
De Bruyne, a £55million capture from Wolfsburg five years ago, is set to become City’s new captain following David Silva’s departure.
The Blues wanted to also reward him for a season which saw him equal Thierry Henry’s Premier League record of 20 assists.
That plan will now be put on ice – although De Bruyne still has three years left on his current £300,000-a-week deal.
De Bruyne has been represented by De Koster for the past 14 years and the agent is considered to be part of the family.
De Koster, whose company J & S International Football Management has offices in the Belgium towns of Vlezenbeek and Knokke as well as Senegal, was lifted from his bed during a dawn raid on his home by police and fraud officials on Thursday.
He is being held in prison and is scheduled to face magistrates on Wednesday.
It has since been revealed that the authorities acted following a complaint made by De Bruyne and his father Herwig.
The midfielder’s £55m move from Wolfsburg to City in 2015 is being scrutinised.
It is understood that De Bruyne discovered de Koster has been transfering money through streams that had not been included in official documentation and that huge sums could not be accounted for.
It has also been alleged that some of the cash found its way to the tax haven of Liechtenstein.
De Koster’s arrest will come as a huge blow to De Bruyne, with his wife about to give birth to their third child.
The player’s parents regularly went on holiday with the agent and they travelled to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil together.
De Koster is being held under a warrant issued by fraud specialist Michel Claise, the Brussels-based investigating judge who recently laid corruption charges against agent Christophe Henrotay.
