Ferran Soriano, the chief executive of Manchester City, has been on an exploratory visit to India as the club’s ambitious parent company, City Football Group (CFG), continue their search for global investment opportunities.

CFG are actively looking to buy a club in China and expand their current international stable of six clubs, but India is also believed to be a market of considerable interest to the group, even if there are no specific investment plans in the pipeline at present.

Soriano, who also serves as chief executive of CFG, attended an Indian Super League game between Jamshedpur FC and Mumbai City FC at the JRD Tata Sports Complex on Friday night in Jamshedpur in the south eastern state of Jharkhand.

Jamshedpur are coached by former City manager, Steve Coppell, and Soriano was given a tour of the stadium by Sunil Bhaskaran, a vice president at Tata Steel and chairman of the Tata Football Academy.

Soriano said in a recent interview that he expected football to eventually become the biggest sport in almost every country in the world, including India and the United States, and CFG want a strong foothold across the world as they seek to maximise commercial opportunities and develop football talent through a network of clubs. That could involve as many as two or three clubs per continent.