Manchester City have moved ahead of Manchester United in the race to sign winger Eden Hazard, who is valued at 30 million pounds by his club Lille.
Manchester City have moved ahead of Manchester United in the race to sign winger Eden Hazard, who is valued at pounds 30million by his club Lille.
City, who have been told by forward Carlos Tevez that he is prepared to see out the remaining two years of his contract following his return from an unauthorised, three-month break in Buenos Aires in February, dispatched football development executive Patrick Vieira to watch Hazard star in Lille's 2-1 victory against Paris St-Germain on Sunday.
United's European scout, Martin Ferguson, was also at the Parc des Princes to run the rule over Hazard, but City's readiness to offer the 21 year-old regular football is understood to be swaying the player towards a move to the Etihad Stadium.
Tottenham had appeared to be in pole position to sign the Belgian earlier this season, but the recent slump which has caused their Champions League hopes to diminish has left City and United to fight it out for the player, who admitted, after scoring one goal and making another against PSG, that he wants to move to England this summer.
"My objective is to go to the Premier League, because I have had my time in France," Hazard said. "Maybe in the future I will return to France, but for now I am concentrating on finishing the season with Lille to the best of my ability and then going to England."
City manager Roberto Mancini, who embarked on a personal scouting mission with assistant David Platt to watch Hazard against Valenciennes in March, claimed last week that the Etihad would be the "perfect destination for Hazard". He said: "He is a good player, he is young and he would do very good things in our team.
"Given his technical qualities, City would be the perfect destination for him. I know him well, I've been watching him a long time. He is a player that many teams want."
City's interest emerged last month after Sir Alex Ferguson travelled to France to watch Hazard in action against Lyon.
Although the United manager has also been linked with Lille defender Mathieu Debuchy, he confessed to being interested in Hazard during an interview on French radio last Monday.
Ferguson said: "I came to watch Lille play Lyon and followed Hazard of course, along with other players. He is a very good player who has many qualities. He is particularly fast over the first 10 yards."
Hazard was described as 'Little Messi' by then-Lille coach Claude Puel after being handed his debut as a 16 year-old in November 2007 and has emerged as one of the most sought-after players in Europe this season.
City's greater spending power and readiness to pay top wages is likely to raise their prospects ahead of United, who are also monitoring Swansea's on-loan midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Martin Ferguson watched the Icelander in action against Bolton last week.
Meanwhile, City's summer transfer plans are likely to be revisited should Tevez hold firm on his claims that he wishes to stay at the club.
Tevez said: "I'm an ambitious person, I want to work hard and win things with City. That's all that matters to me as a player and a person.
"This club has been building something special for the past few years. It was the project and the dream that made me come to City in the first place. I've been here since the start of that project and I share the same vision as [owner] Sheikh Mansour.
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