Arsenal held positive talks with the player.
Liverpool made contact.
Bayern Munich and Chelsea were both monitoring.
But there is now one club that has moved beyond all of them.
Manchester City have agreed personal terms.
And advanced negotiations with Lille are underway.
Manchester City agree personal terms with Bouaddi and enter advanced talks as £86m deal takes shape
According to talkSPORT, Manchester City are in advanced negotiations with Lille over a deal worth approximately £86 million for Ayyoub Bouaddi, with personal terms already agreed between the club and the 18-year-old Moroccan international.
Fabrizio Romano has since confirmed the details, describing City as currently in “direct club-to-club talks” with Lille and naming them as the “most interested club” in Bouaddi ahead of any rival.
The remaining question is not whether the deal happens.
It’s whether it happens now, or whether Bouaddi joins City immediately or returns to Lille on loan for one further season of development.
Manchester City’s preference is to integrate him into Enzo Maresca’s squad immediately.
Lille president Olivier Létang, however, has been clear about his own view.
“I’m convinced there’s a strong chance he’ll stay with us,” Létang told L’Equipe. “And he would be very happy to do so.”
That tension between what the two clubs want forms the final obstacle in a deal that, on every other dimension, is already agreed.
The context behind City’s pursuit is straightforward.
Rodri is set for surgery and is expected to miss the early months of the season.
Elliot Anderson has arrived for £116 million and gives Manchester City box-to-box quality.
But Bouaddi, a World Cup quarter-finalist with Morocco at 18, represents something entirely different.
A long-term midfield cornerstone built around a player profile that doesn’t arrive often.
The youngest player ever to appear in a European club competition, making his debut at 16.
At £86 million, this would dwarf City’s previous most expensive signing.
But for a player the football world has already agreed is generational, the number is increasingly difficult to argue with.
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