Manchester City have signed Ederson from Benfica for a British record fee for a goalkeeper. The 23-year-old Brazilian joins Pep Guardiola’s side after two seasons in the Primeira Liga.
Benfica released a statement on Thursday morning say that they had reached an agreement with the Premier League club to sell the goalkeeper for €40m (£34.9m).
The goalkeeping situation was one of Guardiola’s biggest problems during his debut season in England despite the signing of Barcelona’s Claudio Bravo for £13.75m. The Chilean failed to impress and Guardiola, in the end, resorted to rotating him and Willy Caballero as City finished third in the league, 15 points behind Chelsea at the top, and were eliminated from the Champions League in the last 16 and lost an FA Cup semi-final to Arsenal.
Joe Hart spent the season on loan at Torino and the England No1 is now likely to leave the club on a permanent deal.
Ederson becomes City’s second summer signing, after the capture of the Monaco midfielder Bernardo Silva for £43.6m.
The club have sold their young Turkish striker Enes Unal for £12m to Villarreal while releasing Caballero, Gaël Clichy, Jesús Navas and Bacary Sagna, who had all reached the end of their contracts.
