Carlos Tevez agrees to join Manchester City

MANCHESTER, England — Carlos Tevez agreed to join Manchester City on a five-year deal Monday, further enhancing the wealthy Premier League club's bid to join England's and Europe's elite.

The 25-year-old Argentina striker will complete his switch across Manchester from the more-illustrious United, where he had previously played on loan, after a medical examination.

City will have to pay $41 million to sign Tevez from the group that owned his economic rights.

Despite last winning a league title in 1968, City is gradually becoming an attractive destination for top players since being bought last September by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.

City finished 10th in the Premier League last season, missing out on European competition by three points.

Tevez will link up in attack with Brazil's Robinho, who joined for a British-record fee $61.7 million last September, and Roque Santa Cruz, who joined last month from Blackburn.

"It is terrific news," City manager Mark Hughes told the club's Web site. "He is not only outstanding technically but he is a reliable goal scorer and someone who will contribute fully to the team ethic. He gives us another exciting, attacking dimension."

Tevez left United last month after his two-year loan deal expired with the English champion and he rebuffed United's interest in signing him on a permanent deal. Tevez said he felt manager Alex Ferguson had shown him a lack of respect by not playing him often enough.

Earlier Monday, Ferguson said Tevez had ignored his phone calls and text messages as he tried to persuade the striker to stay at Old Trafford.

"I half expected Carlos Tevez would be going a long time back," Ferguson said in his first public comments since Tevez rejected United last month. "I think he maybe did a deal around January because I spoke to him and gave him an offer on the night we played Inter Milan (in March) and he never came back to me.

"I phoned him on holiday and he never got back to me and I texted him twice and he never got back to me then either, so obviously he had made his mind up a long time ago. He was a good player and did well for us. But he obviously assessed the situation and wanted to go somewhere else."

The permanent deal at City should end a divisive chapter in English soccer that led to a string of bitter legal cases and rules changes on third-party ownership.

Tevez joined West Ham from Brazilian club Corinthians in 2006 but his contract was owned by a third company, Media Sports Investments. West Ham was fined nearly $11 million, but not docked points, and Tevez scored the goal in 2007 the season's final game that saved the club from relegation -- at the expense of Sheffield United.

An independent tribunal eventually ruled that Sheffield was entitled to compensation and the clubs reached an out-of-court settlement earlier this year.

Also Monday, Ferguson said that Manchester United won't be signing any more players this offseason because of inflated transfer fees -- like the world record $131 million for world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo from Madrid.

"I am not going to be stupid," Ferguson said.

He is content with the deals already completed: signing striker Michael Owen on a free transfer and paying a total of around $32 million on wingers Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan from Wigan and Bordeaux.

"That's concluded our business -- we are in the middle of a difficult summer in football where it's been difficult to get good value," Ferguson said. "We have that wonderful sum of money from Real Madrid but we are not going to throw it away and spend it in situations when an extra zero is being placed on the end of transfer fees.

"We have always had to pay a bit extra and this summer we were not prepared to do that."