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 reported British-record fee of £32.4million (€40million).

Robinho was more than willing to join Mark Hughes’ team, much to the chagrin of Champions League rivals Chelsea, who thought they had all but sealed a transfer deal for the talented Brazilian.

Manchester City, who saw the takeover of the club today by the billionaire owners of the Abu Dhabi United Group, started the bidding at 7pm Spanish time with a bid of £27.5million (€35million), but after a series of phone calls Manchester City launched a late bid of what is to believed to be a total of £32.4million (€40million) for the Seleçao star.

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.

Manchester City manager mark Hughes is overjoyed with the prospect of Robinho joining The Citizens, saying on the official Man City website: “I am absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to work with such an incredible talent like Robinho. I have said that in order to compete with the best teams in the Premier League we have to be in the market for players of this calibre, and Robinho is undoubtedly one of the best players in the world.

“I am really looking forward to introducing him to the rest of the squad, and to the City fans at the earliest opportunity. This is a real statement of intent as to the ambitions of Manchester City Football Club.”