Claudio Bravo signs for Manchester City
Claudio Bravo has joined Manchester City from Barcelona on a four-year deal, becoming the club’s new first-choice goalkeeper. He will take over the gloves from Willy Caballero, who in turn had taken them from Joe Hart at the start of the season, with Pep Guardiola not satisfied about the Englishman’s ability to play the sweeper keeper role.
Bravo is City’s ninth signing of a busy summer, and concludes the summer-long search for a new goalkeeper. The Blues had chased Marc-Andre Ter Stegen – also with the Catalan club – for much of the window, but concluded it was impossible to bring him in. The La Liga side decided to sell one of Bravo or Ter Stegen, and viewed the latter as more important, opening Bravo up for a move to Manchester.
The Chilean moved to the Camp Nou from Real Sociedad two years ago, after the World Cup in Brazil. There, he has largely been the first-choice league goalkeeper, with Ter Stegen taking his place in the goal for cup and European competitions. However, in La Liga, Bravo has played 69 times and won two titles with Barça, providing pedigree ahead of his move to City.
It’s believed that the fee for the goalkeeper is in the region of £13.8 million up front, with another £3.5 million in bonuses dependent on Champions League performance and so on. Some of this cost may be offset by the departure of Joe Hart, who is likely to leave on either a temporary or permanent deal later this summer.
Guardiola will be confident that Bravo is much more adept with his feet than either of the current options at City are. Hart was dropped ahead of the league opener against Sunderland, while Willy Caballero has looked less than comfortable at times despite some good saves in the three wins out of three so far.