• Barcelona midfielder likely to join brother Kolo at Eastlands • ‘I think we will probably close his departure very soon’ Manchester City’s long pursuit of Yaya Touré is nearing a successful conclusion and the basis of a deal with Barcelona has been agreed for after the World Cup. A fee has been decided, understood to value him in the region of £25m, and if the structure of payments can be decided City appear to have beaten off Chelsea to convince the 27-year-old that joining a club not involved in the Champions League may still be of benefit to his career. Touré has been on City’s radar since Mark Hughes was manager but, until the past few weeks, he has always expressed reservations about leaving Barcelona for a club outside the Champions League. He is now understood to be inclined to join his brother, Kolo, and become City’s second major summer signing following the £10.5m arrival of Jerome Boateng, the Germany defender, from Hamburg. “I think we will probably close his departure very soon,” Touré’s agent, Dimitri Seluk, said today. “It is likely to be this week, but at the moment we can’t announce anything.” The matter is complicated by the fact that Barcelona have a new president, Sandro Rosell. “I haven’t spoken to Rosell but, out of respect, of course I will speak to him before anything is closed,” Seluk said. “[Joan] Laporta is the president until 30
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World Cup 2010: Yaya Touré’s agent says move to Manchester City likely
