Manchester City’s sister club complete historic deal for teenage starlet with Premier League switch mooted | OneFootball

Esporte Clube Bahia, Manchester City’s sister club owned by the City Football Group, have gotten their hands on one of São Paulo’s brightest up-and-coming talents, as per a new report.

Bahia was brought under the CFG umbrella in 2023 and became the 13th club under Manchester City’s ownership group, strengthening CFG’s foothold in south America and building a resolute gateway for the influx of talent from Brazil into Manchester.

Manchester City have reaped the rewards of CFG’s wide reach in global football since the club’s Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008, which sparked the club’s emergence as a global powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League.

City have solidified their status as one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs with their on-pitch success in the last 15 years – wherein the Blues have won eight league titles amongst a plethora of domestic silverware and broken their European duck by winning their premier UEFA Champions League title in 2023.

Whilst possessing a strong grassroots scouting network, Manchester City managers over the years – and especially Pep Guardiola, who was appointed head coach in 2016 – have benefitted from the club’s global talent ID vision.

City have attracted the best of south American talent, in particular, to the Etihad Stadium over the years, overturning a £68 million profit from the sale of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid last summer, having purchased the 25-year-old from River Plate in Argentina for £14 million in 2022.

Guardiola and co are undergoing a period of transition on the pitch in the backdrop of a sub-par 2024-25 campaign wherein Manchester City finished trophyless – sparking a busy summer in the transfer market for club executives, led by newly-appointed director of football Hugo Viana.

Viana pulled no punches in his first summer in charge at the Etihad Stadium, making seven new signings to mitigate the notable departures of Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan, Ederson, Scott Carson, James McAtee as well as Jack Grealish and Manuel Akanji – the pair of whom left on season-long loans.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, journalist Jorge Nicola has revealed that Manchester City’s sister club Esporte Clube Bahia have secured the services of 14-year-old forward Dieguinho from São Paulo for a fee of £860,000, as relayed by Sport Witness.

With Manchester City’s owners hoping to unveil a £43 million football complex in Bahia by 2027, Guardiola and club executives at the Etihad Stadium will be keeping a close eye on CFG’s roster of up-and-coming talent in Brazil.

Dieguinho, the youngest player to brought into Bahia’s first-team, is envisioned as an ideal candidate to progress his development in Brazil and eventually move to England to test himself in Manchester City colours in the Premier League.

Manchester City and Guardiola need all the help they can get to return to challenging for major trophies in the seasons to follow and incoming talent from Brazil has provided a very encouraging return on investment for the club in the transfer market over the years.