Man City reach agreement with Lille to sign 18 year old Ayyoub Bouaddi

[BatchWizard]

Manchester City have agreed a deal with Lille for Morocco international midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi worth up to 86 million pounds, according to Sky Sports. The structure is a fixed fee of 81.3 million with a further 4.3 million in add ons, and the move will reportedly make the 18 year old the most expensive teenage signing in Premier League history, overtaking the 58.9 million Manchester United paid Lille for Leny Yoro back in 2024.

The context here matters. City have lost Rodri, Bernardo Silva, and Tijjani Reijnders from midfield this summer, and Bouaddi is essentially the centerpiece of how they're trying to rebuild that entire area of the pitch in one transfer window. That's a lot of responsibility to hand an 18 year old, even one who impressed as much as he did for Morocco at the World Cup earlier this year.

Bouaddi's rise at Lille has been fast by any standard. He became the youngest player ever to appear in a European club competition match back in 2023 at just 16 years old, and last season he led every teammate for possession wins with 151, a stat that says a lot about his positional discipline and reading of the game for someone his age. Lille head coach Davide Ancelotti has publicly called him one of the best young players in the world, which is a fairly bold statement to make about your own academy product before he's even left for a big move.

For Lille this is their record sale, beating the 80 million Arsenal paid for Nicolas Pepe back in 2019, and it continues a pattern of the club developing elite young talent and cashing in once European giants come calling

Ayyoub Bouaddi transfer: Manchester City reach agreement with Lille to sign 18-year-old Morocco midfielderwww.skysports.com