EXCLUSIVE: Alvaro Negredo's first day at City
City are delighted to announce the signing of
Alvaro Negredo, who becomes the
Club's third new recruit of
the summer.
The Spanish international follows
Jesus Navas in making the switch from
Sevilla.
He will join up with the squad on the pre-season tour, and wear the number 9 shirt.
Recognised as one of La
Liga's most potent strikers in recent years, the 27-year old was fourth top scorer in
Spain last season with 25 league goals, trailing only
Lionel Messi,
Cristiano Ronaldo and
Radamel Falcao Garcia.
A graduate of
Rayo Vallecano's youth academy, the
6"1' forward only made a handful of appearances for the then-third division outfit before
Real Madrid opted to take him across the
Spanish capital in
2005.
Although the Madrid-born
Negredo never played a game at first-team level at the
Santiago Bernabeu, he did feature regularly for a B team which included
Javi Garcia,
Juan Mata and
Alvaro Arbeloa.
After two years at
Real, the opportunity for regular top-flight football arrived with
Almeria in
2007 and Negredo quickly became a fans' favourite in
Andalusia, hitting 32 goals in his two seasons at the club.
Sevilla smashed their transfer record to take
Alvaro to the
Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in 2009 and were repaid handsomely to the tune of 70 goals in 139 appearances over four seasons.
Negredo made his international debut as a substitute for
Fernando Torres in Spain's 2-1 win over
Armenia in
World Cup qualifying on 6
October 2009.
His first international goals arrived as a pair against
Edin Dzeko's
Bosnia a few days later in the 5-2 win in
Zenica -- the striker also weighed in with two assists.
Negredo was an integral member of the Sevilla squad that went on to defy the odds and lift the
2010 Copa del Rey, defeating
Sergio Aguero's
Atletico Madrid in the final, thanks to a Jesus Navas goal in injury time.
Despite his impressive exploits at club level, Alvaro was overlooked for World Cup selection in 2010 but he was named in the
Euro 2012 squad and made two appearances, including a start in the semi-final against
Portugal before La
Roja went on to retain the trophy in
Kiev.
Negredo has won 14 caps and scored six goals so far in his international career.
His final game for mid-table Sevilla was the
4-3 win over
Valencia on 1 June
2013, a game in which Negredo scored all four goals - not a bad way to
sign off!
Watch his first day as a
Manchester City player.
City's new No.9 will be presented to the fans for the first time at City
Live.
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