Manchester City are in late-stage negotiations with Lille to sign Morocco midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi.
The English club want to finalize the deal this week following their agreement to sell Rodri to Barcelona.
Replacing a Legend
It is reported that Lille values Bouaddi at 100 million euros (£85.6m), per BBC Sport.
Bouaddi starred during the World Cup – he featured in five of Morocco’s six games that took them to the last eight – after impressing during the 2024 Champions League game when Lille beat Real Madrid to announce himself on the big stage.
Bouaddi acts as a deep-lying playmaker and will fit in alongside summer signing Elliot Anderson, who plays as a box-to-box midfielder and as a number six for England.
Bouaddi has played 88 games for Lille after making his debut in October 2023, three days after turning 16, and helped them come third in the French top-flight last term.
Rodri is expected to join Barcelona for £65m in the coming days on a four-year deal.
The Spanish captain, who won this year’s Ballon d’Or, has made 298 appearances for Manchester City in seven trophy-laden seasons after arriving from Atletico Madrid in 2019 for a then club-record fee of £62.8m.
The 30-year-old did not feature in many games last season due to a bad knee injury and missed most of the previous campaign because of a hamstring problem.
However, Rodri found his rhythm at the World Cup in North America, helping Spain win their second world title and earned himself the tournament’s player of the match award.
It is unclear whether Rodri’s exit to re-ignite interest in Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez particularly with the imminent transfer of the Moroccan midfielder.
