If reports and rumors are to be believed, Manchester City are the front-runners on signing Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan.

The 25 year old German midfielder is one of the most coveted players of Europe, a number of top clubs have shown interest in signing the highly-rated performer who has already been eyed as one of the players that will push Germany to historic feats.

Ilkay Gundogan has a contract with Borussia Dortmund which extends until 2017 but even though the German midfielder is not available to be officially signed till the next season this hasn’t stopped other clubs in showing their interest towards the 2011-12 Bundesliga winner.

The clubs that are interested in signing Gundogan will have to offload at least €30m in order to have any hopes of securing his services. €30m is the minimum that Borussia Dortmund will accept for Gundogan but this price tag is probably going to significantly rise after the clubs launch their respective offers and a bidding war is initiated, the team that manages to sign him will probably be the one that makes the most enticing offer for the highly-rated German attacker.

Txiki Begiristain is the director of football of Manchester City and it’s rumored that he has already established a connection with the agent of Ilkay Gundogan and that they have also held meetings as Txiki is attempting to lure the German midfielder to the Etihad Stadium and avoid having to go into a bidding war with the other interested clubs.

It's starting to look a little like a horse race, with all the top clubs jostling for position, and even the likes of StanJames offering odds on which club will home the prize of Ilkay.

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Chelsea are the clubs that have shown interest in signing Ilkay Gundogan but if all of these recent rumors are indeed true then Manchester City have taken the lead and are one step closer in securing the services of Gundogan who might even be offloaded from Borussia Dortmund sooner than what his contract has stipulated.