I joined Man City in £42million transfer but I wasn’t worth that much – it didn’t make sense

THE FORMER most-expensive defender on the planet has admitted that he WASN’T WORTH the £42million Manchester City paid for him.

The eight-time capped France international Eliaquim Mangala arrived at the Etihad in 2014 from Porto.

PA:Press Association

Manchester City forked out £42m for Eliaquim Mangala in 2014[/caption]

PA:Empics Sport

The fee made him the most-expensive player on the planet but he struggled at the Etihad[/caption]

Manuel Pellegrini splashed out the huge fee for him but he struggled to firmly establish himself at City.

Mangala did make 31 and then 33 appearances under the Chilean during his first two years there.

But he was soon deemed surplus to requirements once Pep Guardiola took charge in 2016.

Mangala managed to get a Premier League winners’ medal in the 2017/18 campaign, which came in between loan spells away at Valencia in LaLiga and Everton.

He eventually left City as a free agent in 2019 once his contract had expired and joined Valencia permanently for two seasons.

He then headed to France for a stint at Saint-Etienne but now, at the age of 33, is lining-up for Portuguese side Estoril.

The veteran centre-half has this week sat down with French outlet Le10 Sport to discuss his big-money move a decade ago to England.

And in a refreshing twist, he claims that he was worth nowhere near the £42m fee paid for him.

BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKER

Mangala said: “When I was told at the time that it was over €50m, and €50m was a lot of money… But no man is worth €50m!

“When you’re part of an industry, a business, you inevitably enter into a logic that goes beyond normal life, but nobody is worth this or that price.

“It doesn’t make sense.

“But it was a real experience to go through that. I really enjoyed it.

“I said, you’ll see in one or two years, this record will be broken, and it was.”

These days City have the second most expensive defender of ALL TIME on their books.

That is after they paid RB Leipzig £78m for Josko Gvardiol last summer.

The Croatian is only behind Harry Maguire – who joined Manchester United for £80m in 2019.

Reuters

Mangala had a spell on loan at Everton before leaving on a free transfer[/caption]

Getty

The centre-half, pictured at Saint-Etienne, now plays for Portuguese side Estoril[/caption]