Manchester City hope to use the funds from the investment of a Chinese group to pay for Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola, it’s claimed.
City’s parent company City Football Group [CFG] this week sold 13% of its shares to China Media Capital [CMC] for a reported €376m, and Sport cites claims from England that the deal will give City the buying power to tempt Messi and Guardiola to the Etihad Stadium.
A weekly wage of €1m has even been suggested for Messi, to go with the €250m buyout clause that would have to be triggered in his Barcelona contract. That would equate to more than €50m a year, on a five-year contract.
Guardiola is said to be less interested in the money City can offer than the chance to have more control at a successful club, which would be afforded to him at City by former Barca cohorts Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, with Guardiola’s Bayern Munich future still in doubt.