According to reports in England, Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure is all set to join Manchester City who are captained by his brother Kolo. Yaya’s agent, Dimitri Seluk , held a private meeting with Barcelona dealmaker Txiki Begiristain which has paved the way for the tough tackling midfielder to switch to Eastlands. Although Sekuk did not take any names he said that it was a ‘closed deal’ and that the move would be resolved before the World Cup. A fee of around £20 million is being talked about. Manchester United and Arsenal had also been tracking Yaya for a long period, but City’s financial muscle saw them leapfrog their more established competitiors.
Yaya joined Barcelona from Monaco in 2007 and has represented the Catalan club 75 times scoring four goals. He played an integral part in the Barcelona team which won six trophies in 2009. He was relegated to the bench in the 2009-10 season as Busquets and Keita were preferred to him in the starting line up by Pep Guardiola.
Manchester City are also closing in on German defender Jerome Boateng and Wolfsburg hitman Edin Dzeko. Boateng is set to put pen to paper before the World Cup for a fee of around £11 million while the talks with Dzeko are at an advanced stage.
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