Manchester City Break U18 Transfer Record for Ayyoub Bouaddi
Manchester City are not easing off the accelerator after Pep Guardiola’s summer departure. If anything, their spending is getting louder.
Days after dropping €135 million on Elliot Anderson, City have gone even bigger, confirming the signing of Lille sensation Ayyoub Bouaddi in a deal worth a staggering €100m. For an 18-year-old, it is not just a landmark fee. It is a reset of the entire market.
The agreement is structured at €95m up front with a further €5m in add-ons, and Bouaddi has signed a five-year contract that runs until 2031. For a club already reshaping its midfield after the sale of 2024 Ballon d'Or winner Rodri to Barcelona for €76.5m including add-ons, this is the statement piece.
Bouaddi arrives on the back of a breakout summer with Morocco at the World Cup, where his performances pushed him firmly into the “wonderkid” bracket and drew attention from across Europe. City moved decisively, and the teenager did not hide what the move means to him.
“Manchester City are, for me, the best Club in the world. It’s a dream to be here and be able to call myself a City player. I have spent most of my life working hard to become the best player I can be and reach the top of the game,” he said in the club’s announcement.
His current market value sits at around €80m, but this summer’s transfer window has been defined by swollen numbers. Once City entered the race, a nine-figure package always felt like the threshold that would unlock Lille’s door.
A new benchmark for teenage transfers
This is not just a record. It is a demolition of the old one.
Bouaddi’s €100m move more than doubles the previous high for an U18 player, set when Manchester United paid Lille €62m to sign Leny Yoro in the 2024/25 season. That deal, once seen as the outer edge of teenage spending, now drops into second place.
Behind them, the list reads like a roll call of football’s next generation. Endrick sits third, Chelsea’s Estêvão fourth, while Real Madrid’s aggressive recruitment of young South American talent dominates the rest of the upper tier. The Spanish giants brought in Franco Mastantuono, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo all at 18 years of age, each costing €45m.
The money has not stopped there. Tottenham’s €41.4m move for Archie Gray from Leeds slots into eighth place among the most expensive U18 signings. Alessandro Bastoni’s transfer to Inter occupies ninth, and Wolves’ €40m outlay on striker Fábio Silva completes the current top 10.
That surge has even rewritten a piece of Premier League history. Luke Shaw’s €37.5m switch from Southampton to Manchester United in 2014, long held up as a benchmark fee for a teenage defender, has now been pushed out of the top 10 altogether after 12 years.
City, though, have taken the market to a new level. They have sold a Ballon d'Or-winning midfielder and responded by betting €100m on an 18-year-old who has just announced himself on the world stage.
The question now is not whether Bouaddi is expensive. It is whether, in a few years’ time, this fee will look like the start of a new era or the moment the market finally went too far.
