Manchester City have announced a €70m (£62.4m) deal for Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodrigo.
The Premier League champions have fended off interest from Bayern Munich to sign the 22-year-old in the most expensive deal in the club’s history.
City have now broken their club-transfer record in three of the last four transfer windows and Rodrigo has put pen to paper on a five-year deal running until 2024.
Pep Guardiola has been on the market for Fernandinho’s long-term replacement for the last 12 months and has now turned to Rodrigo.
City missed out on Fred and Jorginho to Manchester United and Chelsea, respectively, last summer and Guardiola will hope Rodrigo can make a quicker transition to the Premier League than the aforementioned duo.
Rodrigo is billed as Sergio Busquets’ natural heir for the Spanish national team and will bolster Guardiola’s midfield options for next season, as City chase a third successive Premier League title.
Only Antoine Griezmann (7.29) garnered a better WhoScored rating (5+ appearances) than Rodrigo (7.24) of all Atletico players in LaLiga last season.
Furthermore, the Spaniard completed 91.1% of his passes in the league last term.
