Man City could soon have partners in Brazil – Reports say club were approached by City Group

There are two recent events which lead many people to believe Manchester City will soon have a partner club in Brazil.

The first of them is the recent reports saying the City Group are genuinely interested in buying a club in the country. Following the purchase of Montevideo Torque in Uruguay, they’d now go for an option in the biggest market in the continent.

Then there’s the fact that big Brazilian clubs are starting to attract commercial owners. First national team legend Ronaldo bought Cruzeiro, and now Botafogo were taken over by Crystal Palace owner John Textor.

That said, new reports in the Brazilian media now claim that the City Group want to buy Bahia.

That was first claimed by Galacticos Online journalist Marcio Martins. He says there are advanced negotiations for the purchase, as the other clubs who’d been listed as options were already ruled out.

Then Bahia Notícias came up to confirm the news. They report that the club were approached by three different groups, but the project offered by the City Group is the most attractive.

Bahia, however, dismiss all the claims. They first did it with an official statement, which said: “Bahia informs that it has not received any proposal from any group with the objective of forming SAF or any other type of partnership.”

Then council president Leonardo Martinez backed it up (via BNews).

“I have no information on any negotiations between Bahia, the aforementioned group or any other in a concrete way. Bahia are without a doubt one of the biggest clubs in the country and therefore very attractive to investors. The main clubs in the country are being surveyed by investors interested in SAF. With Bahia it could not be different.”