CFG confirm plans for £43M Bahia complex amid Manchester City rebuild | OneFootball

The owners of Manchester City have unveiled plans to build a City Football Academy Bahia in Brazil that will require an investment nearing £43 million, as per reports.

City acquired a 90% stake in Bahia when the Brazilian outfit was welcomed into the City Football Group (CFG) umbrella in May 2023, with Bahia then becoming the 13th club owned by Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi ownership.

Since Manchester City’s takeover in 2008, executives leading the City Football Group (CFG) have stamped their mark on global football and City became CFG’s flagship club over the years owing to their domination of English football.

City have won eight Premier League titles, a plethora of domestic cups and a UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup title each since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008.

The Blues have become a global powerhouse and, as a result, have attracter top-tier talent to the club’s bespoke academy – the City Football Academy – since its inception. Phil Foden, Rico Lewis, Nico O’Reilly and Oscar Bobb are all current first-team members who have graduated from the club’s academy.

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has taken pride in the success of then academy in developing talent for the first-team squad over the years, with the academy infrastructure a key hallmark of CFG’s plans following their 2008 takeover at the Etihad Stadium.

After their early years of success under Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City’s appointment of Pep Guardiola as head coach has spearheaded the club as a global powerhouse, with the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss leading City to their premier UEFA Champions League title in 2023.

City are undergoing a period of transition on the pitch after Hugo Viana’s revamp of Guardiola’s squad in his first transfer window as the club’s sporting director. The Blues have turned a corner since their early season slump and are increasingly looking like they can mount a challenge for the Premier League title this term.

Guardiola and co will need all the help they can get in getting this new-look side challenging for major trophies in the seasons to come, with Manchester City’s owners confirming a £43 million investment in Bahia to boost the flow of Brazilian talent to the Etihad Stadium in the seasons to come.

Globo Esporte have reported that the state-of-the-art training centre spans 560,000 square metres, holds 12 pitches, a stadium that can accommodate 1,000 people amongst other amenities to grow Manchester City’s influence in south America, as relayed by Sport Witness.

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano said: “This is a historic day for Bahia, for the people of Bahia, and for Brazilian football. Our focus is on Bahia and local talent. We want every promising player from this state to develop here, in a place that matches the level of the world’s biggest clubs.”

The project is expected to be complete by 2027 and will serve as a promising gateway for Brazilian talent to flow to Manchester City, who have signed a series of young talents from south America since their Abu Dhabi takeover.