The Paraguay striker is well-known to City manager Mark Hughes who signed him for Rovers from Bayern Munich two years ago.

Hughes has never made any secret of his desire to have Santa Cruz at City and had several offers rejected during the January transfer window.

However he has now finally landed the 27-year-old who passed a medical at the City of Manchester Stadium to become City's second major signing of the summer, following the capture of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa.

Santa Cruz began his professional career with Olimpia Asuncion in his home town, helping them to two championship titles. He also won the Paraguayan Footballer of the Year award in 1999.

He made his debut for Paraguay as a 17-year-old and has gone on to win 60 more caps. He is expected to lead their attack at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and clock up a third appearance in the finals.

His eye-catching form earned him a move to Germany and he spent seven years with Bayern, making 155 appearances and helping them to three Bundesliga titles, the domestic double, and the Champions League in 2001.

That prompted Hughes to take him to Ewood Park where he enjoyed a superb debut season for Rovers, scoring 23 goals in 43 matches - including a hat-trick in a thrilling 5-3 defeat at Wigan Athletic.

That form soon convinced other top managers that he would make the Premier League grade, but he went to the head of Hughes' wish list almost as soon as they had parted company at Ewood Park.

City's manager was keen for Santa Cruz to join his Sky Blues revolution both last summer and in January, when the clubs were unable to agree a deal.

Sam Allardyce was keen to hang onto his ace striker to help Blackburn's successful fight against relegation but now he will use the fee to fund his own re-building programme.

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