Ayyoub Bouaddi bucks a Premier League trend with €95m Man City move

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Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Manchester City midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi has repeatedly shown that he is a special talent and the nature of his summer transfer to the Premier League giants from Lille highlights just how much faith Enzo Maresca’s side have in the 18-year-old.

Premier League clubs may be renowned for their big spending – with four transfers this summer hitting the €100m or more mark – yet they have been historically fearful of investing heavily in such young talent.

Bouaddi is therefore the rarest of Premier League commodities as he moves to Manchester.

Premier League clubs rarely spend big on teen talent

For all of the spending power of the Premier League, clubs from England’s top-flight are curiously rare when it comes to spending huge sums on teenage talent.

Bouaddi is only the fourth most expensive teenager of all time, having moved to Man City in a €95m deal, and is the only Premier League representative among the five most expensive teens of all time.

Kylian Mbappe tops the chart having moved from Monaco to PSG permanently for €180m in the summer of 2018, followed by Real Madrid’s big-money investment on Yan Diomande this summer. Joao Felix rounds out the top three before Bouaddi becomes the first Premier League signing.

Why expensive teenage signings so often disappoint

English clubs, meanwhile, have been stung before when signing young.

Prior to Bouaddi, his former Lille colleague Leny Yoro was the most expensive teenager in Premier League history, having moved across Manchester to United in a €70m deal. He has struggled to justify that price tag.

Romeo Lavia and Anthony Martial were the other two mega moves prior to this summer. Although Lavia is set to be handed an important role at Chelsea this season, there is little doubt that deal has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster, while Martial sparkled for a period at Man Utd before injuries caught up to him.

Bouaddi has a €95m price tag, but City can protect him

Man City have therefore been brave in investing so heavily in such a young player.

Bouaddi is different from those around him in this list, though. With Elliot Anderson and, particularly, Enzo Fernandez also joining City in the same window, he will not find himself in the glare of the media spotlight in the way that others before him might have. In many ways, City’s extremely big spend elsewhere in the midfield will shield him and offer him more time to settle.

Current ETV

Ayyoub Bouaddi

M, DM (C)

Man City

Ayyoub Bouaddi

M, DM (C)

Man City

€53.4M

ETV Range

€40.1M - €66.8M

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And he may need it. With an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €53.4m, the Manchester side have paid far in excess of his projected worth. In other circumstances, all eyes would have been on him.

Of course, there will inevitably be an element of pressure on Morocco’s World Cup star, but he has time to grow into his role and justify his side’s unprecedented show of faith.