Manchester City to pursue Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi next summer

London: English football heavyweights Manchester City have decided to allocate $400 million to acquire the services of Bayern Munich head coach Pep Guardiola and Barcelona's Argentine forward Lionel Messi.

The cash will be funded by the club's parent company City Football Group, after selling 13 percent of the Citizens shares to Chinese investors, reports Efe.

According to a report published on Wednesday by Daily Mirror here, City will allocate the amount, which will be acquired from the Asian company, as well as its new English Premier League (EPL) deals, to sign Guardiola and Messi.

If the plan comes through, it will link up Messi with former Barcelona chief tactician Guardiola, under whom the Argentina star won the 'FIFA World Player of the Year' awards four times. The duo also won three La Liga and two European Champions League titles.

Last summer City invested $224 million to add new players to their roster, such as Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Fabian Delph and Nicolas Otamendi, while City's chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristainthe have been targeting Guardiola since their arrival in 2012.

City, current leader of the EPL, announced on Tuesday that a Chinese consortium, composed of China Media Capital and CITIC Capital, will pay $400 million for 13 percent of the club's parent company of City Football.