Manchester City has confirmed a deal with Lille to sign 18-year-old Moroccan international Ayoub Bouaddi in a transfer that could rise to 100 million euros once add-ons are included. The teenager has put pen to paper on a five-year contract, closing one of the most closely watched transfer sagas of the summer window.
The fee instantly rewrites Moroccan football’s transfer record books. Bouaddi now stands well clear of Paris Saint-Germain full-back Achraf Hakimi, whose 70-million-euro move from Inter Milan had stood as the previous benchmark for Moroccan players moving abroad. Winger Ismael El Sabairy and former Chelsea man Hakim Ziyash complete the podium of the country’s costliest sales.
Zooming out to the wider Arab world, Bouaddi becomes the most expensive player of all time, ahead of Egypt’s Omar Marmoush, who joined Manchester City himself for 80 million euros, and ahead of Hakimi. On the African continent, only Ivorian forward Yann Djouma, sold for 130 million euros, commands a higher fee than the young Moroccan.
The move underscores how far Moroccan football has traveled since the national team’s historic run to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It also reflects the growing strength of the country’s youth academies and scouting networks, which are increasingly delivering teenage talents straight into Europe’s biggest leagues.
For City, the signing fits a familiar pattern: recruiting young, high-ceiling players with resale value as the backbone of a squad built for the long term, a strategy the club has leaned on repeatedly in recent transfer windows. The pressure now shifts to Bouaddi himself, who will need to adapt quickly to the physical demands and intense competition for places in the Premier League.
The transfer keeps Morocco firmly in the global football conversation, a reminder that the country’s academies are now producing some of the most sought-after young players anywhere on the continent.
