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By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed to make Manchester City, the English Premier League soccer club he bought in July 2007, the pride of Thailand.
"It will be the team Thais are proud of," Thaksin, who returned to Bangkok from exile 18 months after being ousted in a coup, told army-run Channel 5 television from Hong Kong.
He also reiterated a commitment to spread the club's name across Asia with a network of training and recruitment academies.
"There will be Man City China, Man City Japan, Man City U.S.. In the next season, Man City will be another Man United," Thaksin said.
He gave no details of the plan but said fans would be surprised by an improved performance.
In an interview with Reuters in December, Thaksin discussed plans to raise funds for the club and to recruit players, including securitising revenues such as gate receipts.
"Securitisation is the name of the game they are playing in Western countries. We have to work on that," he said.
Two Man City players accompanying him on his return to Thailand on a flight from Hong Kong had nothing but praise for their chairman and his commitment to the game.
"He's a very genuine and a very nice person -- very generous and passionate about the club. He's willing to put in time, money and effort to make sure the club's a success," goalkeeper Kaspar Schmeichel told Reuters.
GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT
Although he insists he has quit politics, Thaksin's 81 million pound (then $164 million) purchase of 75 percent of Manchester City helped maintain his prominence -- his every move and utterance recorded by Thai newspapers.
"The Manchester City takeover has put him in a global spotlight," Thaksin biographer Sorakon Adunyanon said.
"Having built an empire worth 73 billion baht, not many people outside Thailand knew him. But after spending only five billion baht on City, he has become globally known," he said.
Despite being disliked by many urban, middle-class Thais, Thaksin's control of what was a struggling side whose last major success was a League Cup win 31 years ago, has brought him adulation from the City faithful.
Thaksin told Channel 5 he would spend much of his time in Thailand on promoting Thai soccer through Manchester City.
His Thaicom foundation has already financed the Thai national team to train twice in Manchester in the past three months and Thaksin has promised to hire a European coach or a trainer from City's academy to work along side a Thai coach for the team.
Schmeichel and team mate Kelvin Etuhu are in Thailand for a youth soccer clinic as part of the club's search for a suitable site to build a soccer academy. ($1=.5045 pound)
