THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United signed Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham for 30.75 million pounds (C$58.9 million) on Monday despite a late attempt by crosstown rivals Manchester City to hire the Bulgaria striker.
United left it until the last day of the summer transfer window to finally complete its move for a player it has coveted for a year.
The size of the transfer fee — the most ever paid by United and the most ever received by Tottenham — coupled with United’s agreement to loan promising striker Fraizer Campbell to Spurs for a year persuaded the north London club to drop a complaint to the Premier League over the English champions’ pursuit of Berbatov.
Spurs had not wanted to sell Berbatov to United because of the Red Devils’ conduct, but the player closed the transfer at Old Trafford with United manager Alex Ferguson and chief executive David Gill.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said in July that United had been trying to buy Berbatov for more than a year in breach of Premier League rules.
Spurs had rejected an earlier bid from United and had been driving a hard bargain with the Red Devils after complaining to the Premier League in July about their "disgraceful" attempts to tempt away Berbatov.
With the transfer window now closed, Berbatov was the only major addition to a squad that won last season’s Champions League and Premier League.
Ferguson was desperate to bolster a strike force that has lacked a recognized centre forward since Ruud van Nistelrooy was sold to Real Madrid in 2006.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 42 goals last season but was out injured until October and, like Wayne Rooney, he roams freely about the field rather than occupying dangerous central positions. Carlos Tevez also drops deep frequently.
Berbatov, who joined Tottenham from Bayer Leverkusen in 2006 in a four-year deal, will wear the No. 9 shirt that was freed earlier Monday when United sold Louis Saha to Everton.
Berbatov scored 23 goals in 52 appearances last season, including a penalty kick in Spurs’ 2-1 win over Chelsea in the League Cup final.
He was omitted from the Spurs team this season by manager Juande Ramos while he held out for a transfer.
But the move to United was almost hijacked by City, hours after it had agreed to a takeover by a United Arab Emirates business group.
Sulaiman al-Fahim, who brokered the buyout for the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, told The Associated Press that there had been 25-million-pound (C$47.9 million) bid.
Tottenham’s sale of Berbatov mirrored that of Robbie Keane to Liverpool in July, when the north London club also got a premium price for one of its star assets in exchange for dropping a complaint to the Premier League.
Spurs has now raised 49.75 million pounds (C$95.3 million) by selling the two players, helping offset the total of about 65 million pounds (C$124.5 million) it spent on David Bentley, Luka Modric, Giovani Dos Santos, Heurelho Gomes and, on Monday, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Vedran Corluka.