PARIS - Ronaldinho, who left Barcelona for AC Milan, and Manchester City new signing Robinho were the two top names in football to have completed transfers during the summer.
Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Andrei Arshavin of Zenit St Petersburg had been tipped for big-money moves but they came to nothing.
The transfer deadline passed at midnight on September 1, meaning players cannot now move from clubs till the winter transfer window opens in January.
Ronaldinho’s move meant he could leave his wretched season at Barcelona behind him, where he was accused of showing more interest in night-time partying than what he was doing on the Nou Camp pitch.
However AC Milan’s 20-million-euro purchase of the 2005 European Footballer of the Year could prove a rebirth in the career of Ronaldinho, who teams up with Brazilian compatriots Kaka and Pato at the San Siro.
Andrei Shevchenko has also returned to AC Milan from Chelsea and the club looks set for an upswing in fortunes following a poor 2007/08 season.
Manchester City signed Robinho from Real Madrid for a fee of around 42 million euros, the English Premier League club confirmed yesterday.
Brazilian international Robinho agreed a four-year contract with Mark Hughes’s side shortly before the close of the transfer window.
Juventus contented themselves with the 22.8 million-euro capture of Brazilian striker Amauri from Palermo as their top signing.
Coach Jose Mourinho was the big investment by Inter Milan who brought him in as a replacement to Roberto Mancini and their major signing of the season was made on Monday when they took on board FC Porto winger Ricardo Quaresma for around 17 million euros.
Inter also landed Roma’s Brazilian midfielder Mancini and Ghana midfielder Sulley Muntari.
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