{"id":975,"date":"2014-01-25T21:33:24","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T21:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=975"},"modified":"2014-01-25T22:06:24","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T22:06:24","slug":"mata-arrives-carrington-for-utd-medicalmanchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/mata-arrives-carrington-for-utd-medicalmanchester\/","title":{"rendered":"”it was time to leave Chelsea” Mata"},"content":{"rendered":"

Juan Mata has become Manchester United record signing after completing his\u00a0\u00a337.1m move from Chelsea to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Spain midfielder had a medical on Saturday and becomes manager David Moyes’s second high-profile signing, following the arrival in August of fellow midfielder Marouane Fellaini from Everton.<\/p>\n

The 25 year old, who was greeted on arrival by manager David Moyes saturday afternoon has now broken club’s\u00a0transfer record\u00a0–\u00a0which previously stood at \u00a330.75million paid for Dimitar Berbatov in 2008\u00a0–\u00a0for the 25-year-old.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his first statement after completing his move to United, the former Chelsea player said he was happy to join his new club.<\/p>\n

“I am thrilled to be joining United,” said Mata. “I have enjoyed some very happy years at Chelsea but the time has come for a new challenge.” He said.<\/p>\n

Dutch striker Robin van Persie was one of the first players to welcome Mata to United, posting on his Twitter account: ‘Welcome Juan Mata. See you all Tuesday.’<\/p>\n

\n

Photographers arrived outside United’s training base early on Saturday morning in anticipation of Mata’s arrival.<\/p>\n

Veteran defender Rio Ferdinand joked about the media presence on his Twitter account, posting: ‘Who they here for??? Cameras at the Carrington entrance….gave them my best smile!! #Baggyeyes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Juan Mata has become Manchester United record signing after completing his\u00a0\u00a337.1m move from Chelsea to Old Trafford. The 25-year-old Spain midfielder had a medical on Saturday and becomes manager David Moyes’s second high-profile signing, following the arrival in August of fellow midfielder Marouane Fellaini from Everton. The 25 year old, who was greeted on arrival […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}