Brazil´s Jo vows to score plenty of goals for Man City

Brazilian striker Jo has vowed to repay Mark Hughes' faith and score a hatful of goals for his new club Manchester City next season.

The 21-year-old was Hughes's first major signing at Eastlands since he replaced Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager when he inked a four-year contract this month in a 38-million-dollar move from CSKA Moscow.

“I know it's not easy to play in England, but I can score a lot of goals,” he told the New Paper here where Brazil are training ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Asked if he could better the 32 goals that Fernando Torres scored for Liverpool last season, he replied: “I can't say that I'm better than him, but my job is the same as his — to score lots of goals.”

Jo, whose full name is Joao Alves de Assis Silva, is a left-footed forward who joined several fellow Brazilians at CSKA in 2006 when he moved from Corinthians.

During his time with CSKA, he won the Russian league and cup double in 2006 and also made numerous Champions League appearances, scoring 44 goals in 77 matches.

“I decided to come to Manchester City because it is one of the clubs that showed more interest in me, although I had offers from other clubs,” he said.

“After I spoke to the manager I was very pleased. I was told Manchester City are a club going forward. We can go places, that is our objective.”

Last season City finished ninth in the Premier League but that wasn't good enough for club chairman Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai premier, who fired Eriksson and replaced him with Hughes.