Manchester City pay £2.4m for 14-year-old hailed as 'new Messi'

The teenager from Malaga has been the subject of a tug of war between City and Barcelona and it is the Manchester club who have now won the day.

City have paid £300,000 up front, with the final deal worth £2.4m depending on what the youngster achieves at the Etihad.

Scouts believe Diaz could one day be worth between £30-£40m once he develops. Luis Suarez's agent Pere Guardiola, brother of Bayern Munich boss Pep, has been involved in negotiations.

Diaz looks likely to be the latest football 'wonderkid' but for every success story, there are many failures who never live up to the hype. Among the most high-profile is Freddie Adu, who was quickly dubbed the 'next Pele' after making his MLS debut aged just 14.

After rejecting the advances of Inter Milan, the Ghana-born player eventually moved to Europe, aged 17, and spent time with Manchester United before heading to Benfica, where he played in just 11 games before being sent back to the US and Philadelphia Union.

Sonny Pike, meanwhile, was youth team player at Leyton Orient before being plucked from obscurity by Ajax. Immediately dubbed a future superstar, he couldn't deal with the pressure and suffered a nervous breakdown.

Closer to home, Nii Lamptey arrived at Villa in 1994 already endorsed by Pele as his prodigy but lasted just one season before being shipped out to Coventry. But if Diaz needed any more proof of the unforgiving world of professional football, it's the fact he isn't even the youngest player to be handed the 'next Messi' tag.

Chelsea and Manchester United are among a host of clubs tracking the progress of an eight-year-old player from Argentina. Claudio Gabriel Nancufil, who plays for a youth club situated in the foothills of the Andes, has been dubbed 'Snow Messi' and has Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan on his trail.