City sign Hamburg´s de Jong

Manchester City have signed Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong from German side Hamburg for an undisclosed fee, the English Premier League side announced on Wednesday

The 24-year-old, capped 29 times by his country, has signed a four-and-a-half year contract with City, now transformed into one of the world’s wealthiest sports clubs under the ownership of Abu Dhabi-based Sheikh Mansour.

City, rebuffed on Monday in their bid to sign Brazil’s Kaka from AC Milan for a reported 108 million pounds (100 million euros) – a world record deal if it had gone through – have seen two players join this week with de Jong following former West Ham striker Craig Bellamy to Eastlands.

De Jong missed much of the first half of the Bundesliga campaign with a knee injury but recently returned to training.

He had been with Hamburg for three years after joining from Ajax.