Marc Guéhi has completed his £20m move to Manchester City from Crystal Palace. The England international has signed a contract to 2031 after choosing the club over other offers.

An agreement was reached on Friday and the England defender was withdrawn from Palace’s weekend game at Sunderland to finalise the transfer. Guéhi was close to joining Liverpool last summer before Palace pulled the plug but the Premier League champions decided not to revive their interest because they saw no value in a January deal for a player out of contract in the summer.

“This move feels like the culmination of all the hard work I have put into my career,” Guéhi said. “I am now at the best club in England and part of an unbelievable squad of players.”

City have moved for the 25-year-old at a time when three of their centre-backs, Rúben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and John Stones, are injured. The academy graduate Max Alleyne was recalled from a loan at Watford a fortnight ago to fill in.

Palace’s manager, Oliver Glasner, criticised his club’s board for sanctioning Guéhi’s sale. “We feel that we’re being abandoned,” he said after a defeat at Sunderland. “There’s no support. Everybody’s disappointed. We’ve been playing with 12 to 13 players for weeks now. On the bench I had just kids.”

Guéhi’s former club Chelsea will be due 20% of any fee, as part of the package that took him to Palace in 2021. He is City’s second signing of the window after Antoine Semenyo joined from Bournemouth for an initial £62.5m.