Manchester City have agreed a deal with Lille worth €95m (£81.4m) plus €5m in potential add-ons for Ayyoub Bouaddi, with the Morocco midfielder’s arrival to take the club’s summer spend to nearly £200m after Elliot Anderson’s £116m signing earlier in the window. The 18-year-old was stood down from Lille’s Ligue 1 match against Angers on Sunday before a medical with City and his transfer becoming official in the next few days. Bouaddi, who operates mainly as a No 6, started five of Morocco’s six games at the World Cup tournament this summer, including the 2-0 quarter-final defeat by France.
That was only his eighth international appearance. His Lille debut came in an October 2023 Conference League group game– at 16 years and three days, it made him the youngest footballer to play in the competition. The majority of the fee for Bouaddi will come from the £65m sale of Rodri to Barcelona, which was sealed last week.
Anderson, who is making his debut in City’s Premier League opener against Bournemouth on Sunday, can play as No 6 or No 8, so Bouaddi may not go directly into Enzo Maresca’s starting XI. City remain interested in Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández, also a midfielder. The west London club want £120m for the Argentinian but City are thought to value him at a lower figure.
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