Dani Alves to snub Manchester City and Premier League elite to sign for PSGThe 34-year-old was due to take a medical with City before joining Guardiola's pre-season training camp this week, but has now verbally committed himself to signing for PSG.
PSG have made a successful final-hours intervention to convince Dani Alves to reject Pep Guardiola's invite to join him at Manchester City. During a series of phone calls with the Brazil international on Saturday, the Qatar-owned club offered the right back the opportunity to be a pivotal figure in PSG's plan to become Champions League winners.
The 34-year-old - available without a transfer fee after negotiating his release from Italian champions Juventus - was due to take a medical with City before joining Guardiola 's pre-season training camp this week, but has now verbally committed himself to signing for PSG. City had already agreed financial terms on a two-year contract with the English Premier League club so confident of securing Dani's signature that press were briefed on Friday of the transfer's imminent completion.
Apparently unknown to City officials, however, several of their Champions League rivals had been exploring the possibility of gazumping their deal. In addition to PSG's late intervention, Chelsea resurrected an approach of their own for Dani, informally proposing superior financial terms to those on offer to join Guardiola's squad.
Chelsea's attempt to sign one of the most successful footballers in the modern game is understood to have been driven by Roman Abramovich, a long-time admirer of Barcelona, where Dani won 16 major trophies in eight years.
In a further indication of the conflict between Antonio Conte and his employers over recruitment, the unsettled Chelsea manager is said to have opposed the proposed transfer.
Manchester United have also made inquiries as to Dani's willingness to reject City in favour of a move to Old Trafford. United have been under pressure from manager Jose Mourinho to have top-quality reinforcements in place before his squad begins pre-season training in Los Angeles on Monday, as exhibited by their hurried move to agree an initial £75million transfer fee with Everton for Romelu Lukaku this week.
Completing a full set of England's Champions League representatives interested in Dani's signature, Tottenham had been involved in parallel negotiations with the Brazilian before and after Juve agreed to cancel the final year of his Serie A contract.
According to a PSG source, the French club sold Dani a project in which he would contribute the leadership and Champions League-winning experience to an expensively assembled group of players that has faltered when in strong position in the knockout stages of the competition.
He can also expect more playing time than at City, whom Guardiola has instructed to recruit two elite-level right backs this summer. PSG say that Dani committed to joining them on Saturday evening with the deal expected to be formalised within the next 24 hours. The decision to join the French side instead of City follows several recent interviews in which Dani had been effusive in his praise for Guardiola.
“If you turn the word computer backwards, it spells Steve Jobs,” he said ahead of Juve's Champions League Final loss to Real Madrid. “If you turn the word football backwards, it spells Pep.
“He is a genius. I’ll say it again, a genius. Pep would tell you exactly how everything was going to happen in a match before it even happened.
"The sensation when we left every one of his pre-match talks was like we were already up 3-0. We were so empowered, so prepared, that it felt like we were already winning.”
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/dani-alves-snub-manchester-city-10762210
