Manchester City Bags Robinho for £32.5 Million from Real Madrid

Manchester City Bags Robinho for £32.5 Million from Real Madrid
City trumped Chelsea's pursuit by completing a four-year deal worth 32.5 million pounds (C$62.2 million) to eclipse the 31 million pounds (C$59.3 million) Andriy Shevchenko cost the Blues' Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich in 2006. Manchester City were successful and set a new British transfer record in the process.

Having completed his astonishing £210 million takeover of Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan delivered a swift challenge to Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea — and the rest of football’s elite — with audacious bids for some of the world’s best players.

"It's been one hell of a day," said Hughes. "It's a huge statement of intent. A lot of credit has got to go to Dr Thaksin (Shinawatra, the club's current chairman and owner) for being able to bring the Abu Dhabi company to the table and this huge investment that is going to go forward. They wanted to present something to the people of Manchester and they have been able to do that. It's a fantastic signing for us. If we're going to get to the places we want to get to we are going to have to compete against outstanding teams. We have to attract world-class players and that is what we have done. He is an exceptional talent and opposition teams are going to fear him," he added.

Chelsea was so sure of signing the player that it had angered Madrid last week by briefly offering for sale shirts bearing his name. Madrid rejected Chelsea's initial 32-million-euro (C$49.8-million) bid.

The 24-year-old Brazil forward had long looked set to join Chelsea and his former international manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, but City seems to have done fierce rival United a favour by stopping Robinho from joining the Blues.

City's improved financial status also suggests that it will compete from now on with the likes of super-rich Chelsea, which enjoyed a huge edge in recent years because of the backing of Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.

Manchester City will get to unveil their Brazilian superstar on Sept. 13 by playing with Chelsea. Add that to the fact that City just added Shaun Wright-Phillips, who debuted this past weekend with two goals and will get his own shot at his former team when the two clubs square off.