One of European football’s most dominant clubs, Manchester City, has reached a preliminary agreement valued at 100 million euros (£85.6 million) to sign 18-year-old Moroccan international midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi from French Ligue 1 side Lille, senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel has confirmed.
Earlier this week, BBC Sport first broke the news that negotiations between the two clubs had entered the final stages for the teenage prospect’s transfer to the Premier League champions. The agreement, which will see Bouaddi join manager Enzo Maresca’s first-team squad, includes an initial fixed transfer fee of £81.4 million, with an additional £4.2 million in performance-based add-on clauses. The young midfielder is now set to complete the protracted transfer process to move to England after Lille formalized its acceptance of the offer.
The move comes as Manchester City reshapes its central midfield unit this transfer window, following the high-profile departures of two key midfielders this summer: Rodri moved to Barcelona in a £65 million deal, while Tijjani Reinders departed for Saudi Pro League side Al-Qadsiah for £52 million. City have already made one major midfield addition, signing England international Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116 million. Club sources confirm the side still holds interest in Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez, though it remains unclear whether a second deal for the Argentine can be finalized before the transfer window closes.
Bouaddi’s rise to the top of European football’s most-wanted prospect lists has been rapid and remarkable. He made his senior debut for Lille in October 2023, just three days after his 16th birthday, breaking club legend Eden Hazard’s record to become the youngest senior player in Lille’s history. Just one year later, on his 17th birthday, he delivered a man-of-the-match performance to help Lille secure a iconic Champions League group stage victory over Real Madrid, announcing his talent to a global audience and earning a standing ovation and chants from the packed crowd at Lille’s Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
He went on to break another of Hazard’s records earlier this year, becoming the youngest player in club history to reach 50 Ligue 1 appearances at just 18 years old. Across two senior seasons, Bouaddi has racked up 88 total appearances for Lille, helping the club finish third in Ligue 1 last term to secure a return to Champions League football for the 2025-26 season.
This past summer, he continued his breakout as a star for Morocco at the World Cup, starting five of the North African side’s six matches as they advanced to the tournament quarter-finals. A deep-lying playmaker by trade, Bouaddi’s style of play is expected to complement new signing Elliot Anderson, who can operate both as a box-to-box midfielder and in the holding number six role for England.
Manchester City is preparing to open its 2025-26 Premier League campaign this Sunday, hosting Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium with kickoff scheduled for 14:00 BST. The side heads into the new season after a narrow defeat to Arsenal in last weekend’s FA Community Shield, the traditional season opener between the previous campaign’s league champion and FA Cup winner.