Lisbon (AFP) – Pep Guardiola’s summer recruitment drive continued apace on Thursday as Manchester City signed the up-and-coming Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson Moraes from Benfica, the Portuguese champions announced.
The 40-million-euro (£34.85m, $44.87m) deal makes the 23-year-old the most expensive goalkeeper since Juventus paid Parma 52 million euros for Gianluigi Buffon back in 2001.
City had made it clear that goalkeeper Willy Caballero would be moved on this summer while Claudio Bravo suffered a torrid first season which raised doubts over the wisdom of allowing Joe Hart to leave the club on loan.
Manchester City began their recruitment campaign to wrest the Premier League title from Chelsea next season when they signed Portuguese playmaker Bernardo Silva from French champions Monaco in a deal reported to be worth almost 50 million euros last Friday.
Guardiola recently cleared out four senior players including winger Jesus Navas and defender Gael Clichy after the club finished a distant third behind Premier League champions Chelsea this term.
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