When it comes to splashing the cash, only one club can match Real Madrid cent for cent. Big spending Manchester City have yet again opened their cheque book to sign Lazio’s Serbian defender Aleksandar Kolarov for a reported 19 million Pounds.
The owners of the club, the Abu Dhabi United Group have added Kolarov to their ever growing list of world class players which includes Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, David Silva and former Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure.
One might be tempted to think that the major reason why such quality players would want to join a team that is still struggling to break into the so called top four group that is dominated by Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool is because of the money. This is true in 90 per cent of all cases and as much as players may try and deny it, the money factor definitely plays a major role in their decisions.
However, new acquisition Yaya Toure has come out to deny that he signed for City because of the money. Toure is reported to have signed a 5 year deal that will see him earn weekly wages in the region of 221,000 Pounds!
It does not take a genius to figure out that Toure’s deal will make him one of the highest paid players in the sport. Cristiano Ronaldo for example, earns wages of 200,000 Pounds per week. According to Toure, one of the major reasons he decided to join City was due to his brother’s presence.
“In football, you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. United are a big club, one of the biggest in the world, but I chose City because they have not won anything for a long time. It’s a very nice feeling to come in and see everything changing. It’s an interesting challenge for me and I hope everything goes well. I saw a lot of things written about why I left but, for me, I wanted to play with my brother.
“That was very important for me. Now I’ve signed for City I’m very happy. Now my brother and I want to make great things happen at this club and I’m sure we’ll do it. My motivation is to do great things with City, to finish second or third maybe, to get into the Champions League.”
Well, things did not get off to a good start for Toure and City as they lost 2-0 to Sporting Lisbon yesterday at the Red Bull Arena in New York. Currently in North America for a pre-season tour that will also see them play European champions Inter Milan, the Citizen fielded a rather weakened team for Friday’s duel.
Photo credit: from Stefan Meisel
