Manchester City have beaten Chelsea in securing the transfer of Real Madrid's Brazilian striker Robinho, with the Brazilian International moving to Eastlands for a club-record fee of £32.5million (€40million).

Real Madrid were only willing to sell their star player to Mark Hughes’ team, much to the chagrin of Champions League rivals Chelsea, who thought they had sealed the transfer deal.

Manchester City, who saw the takeover of the club today by the billionaire owners of the Abu Dhabi United Group, launched a late bid of £32.5million (€40million) for the Seleçao star after failing in securing the transfer of Spurs and Bulgaria striker Dimitar Berbatov, who sealed a move to Manchester United .

24-year-old Robinho joins fellow Brazil teammates Elano and new signing Jo at Eastlands, where much is now expected for the 2008/09 season after the takeover and after having already secured the transfers of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Tal Ben Haim from Chelsea, Vincent Kompany from SV Hamburg and RCD Espanyol’s Pablo Zabaleta on-loan this summer.

Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon made a statement on Spanish TV saying: "For human reasons and footballing reasons, that is why he is moving on."