SOCCER TRANSFER NEWS: Manchester City have beaten Chelsea to the signing of Brazilian forward Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record transfer fee of about £32.5million.

Chelsea have been chasing the 24-year-old but City have captured him on a four-year deal with a late bid.

"I am absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to work with such an incredible talent like Robinho," City boss Mark Hughes told the club website. "This is a real statement of intent as to the ambitions of Manchester City."

City made the audacious attempt to sign Robinho on transfer deadline day after earlier agreeing to a takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group.

Hughes added: "I have said that in order to compete with the best teams in the Premier League we have to be in the market for players of this calibre, and Robinho is undoubtedly one of the best players in the world. I am really looking forward to introducing him to the rest of the squad, and to the City fans at the earliest opportunity."

Earlier, Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon said: "We have agreed to sell the player for human reasons, and for footballing reasons and for an important quantity of money.

"After consulting with the technical staff we have decided it was the best decision for the group and the club. The fact the player accepted the offer from City proves he isn't moving for sporting reasons.

"It isn't Real's policy to sell players but we thought it was for the best."

Robinho made it clear he wanted to leave for Chelsea just over a week ago, unhappy that the club had considered selling him to help finance their failed bid for Cristiano Ronaldo, and coach Bernd Schuster left him out of the squad for Real's last two matches.

The German had insisted he wanted the player to stay, especially after Real failed to land David Villa from Valencia and Santi Cazorla from Villarreal last week.

But Robinho burned his bridges with another appeal to the media to be allowed to leave on Sunday.