Manchester City manager Mark Hughes said the club’s bid for AC Milan’s Kaka is still on, dismissing a report that it had withdrawn the offer for the 2007 FIFA world player of the year.
Arabianbusiness.com, citing a “senior source” close to the Premier League soccer club’s Abu Dhabi owners, said City had pulled out of a record $150 million deal for the 26-year-old playmaker. Hughes said talks are proceeding.
“I’ve seen these reports but you have to bear in mind that the people who are being given a platform to speak do not represent the owner (Sheikh Mansour) or (chairman) Khaldoon (Al Mubarak),” Hughes told reporters. “In this instance it is completely untrue because negotiations are still taking place.”
Hughes said it was “impossible” to say whether the deal would go through, “but we will let everyone know when there is something to say.”
Earlier, City’s assistant manager Mark Bowen said Kaka could be set to join City.
“We believe the deal is very close,” he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. “We are selling the future plans of the club to the player.”
Arabianbusiness.com -- which broke the news of the Abu Dhabi takeover of City last year -- said the club is now pursuing another Italy-based forward, although he was described as “not in the Kaka league.” Kaka had been offered a world record $731,000-a-week salary to join City, it added.
Yesterday the Brazilian said he aimed “to grow old at Milan” and become the team’s captain.
Meet Mansour
Kaka wants to meet Sheikh Mansour before deciding whether to move after Milan accepted a 100 million-pound ($146 million) bid, the Daily Mail and other papers reported today. Milan is keen on the deal and is waiting for Kaka’s father Bosco Leite, his main adviser, to return from a holiday in Brazil for talks.
“Milan has authorized the negotiation with City,” Diogo Kotscho, a spokesman for Kaka, told the BBC. “The next step is Kaka’s father will talk to Manchester City.”
City is backed by Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, which bought Kaka’s Brazil teammate Robinho for a British record 32.5 million pounds when it took over the team.
Robinho has told Hughes that Kaka, who is under contract at the San Siro until June 2013, is ready to join City, the Mail added.
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