Chelsea confirmed the signing of the Barcelona forward Pedro Rodriguez for a four-year deal on Thursday and is the club’s second signing in less than a week after the arrival of Ghana defender Baba Rahman.

The 28-year-old had been a target of Manchester United throughout the summer. Earlier this month, Pedro had agreed personal terms with United and he was just waiting for the clubs to agree on a transfer fee. But it was Jose Mourinho and former Barcelona playmaker Fabregas persuaded Pedro to join the Blues.

“I am very happy to be here. I am very excited to start my adventure at Chelsea and I am here to keep winning titles,” said Pedro. “Thanks to the club and the supporters for giving me the opportunity to put the blue shirt on,” he added.

The Span international, who won three Champions League and five La Liga titles with Barcelona, trained with his new team-mates at Cobham training ground and could make his debut in Sunday’s game against West Bromwich Albion. The move reunites him with Barcelona midfielder and Spain teammate Cesc Fabregas, who ended his first season at Stamford Bridge with a Premier League title as well as Capital One Cup.

Tenerife-born Pedro has featured in Barcelona’s three most recent games in the UEFA Super Cup and the two-legged Spanish Super Cup, which they lost to Basque club Athletic Bilbao. But they defeated Sevilla 5-4 after extra-time to clinch the UEFA Super Cup on August 11 with Pedro scoring the winner.

The Spaniard is a product of the Catalan’s La Masia youth academy and had been an integral part of the squad at Camp Nou. He has scored 99 goals in 326 appearances across all competitions for Barca since his debut in 2008. During 2009-10 season, he became the first player in the history to score in six different official competitions in a single season. He also won the World Cup and European Championship with Spain in 2010 and 2012 respectively. IMAGE/tvnz.co.nz