Manchester City’s move for Ayyoub Bouaddi has put the summer market’s skewed mathematics under the lamp, with former Lille team-mate Thomas Meunier praising the teenager while questioning the logic of a fee reported to be close to €100 million.
Key takeaways
- Bouaddi, the 18-year-old Moroccan midfielder, has joined Manchester City in a deal valued at around €100 million.
- Meunier played alongside Bouaddi at Lille and described him as “incredible”.
- The Belgian international believes transfer fees have lost any sensible connection to footballing value.
- Meunier compared the modern market to paying £200 million for a donkey while finding an excellent player for £20 million.
- The former Lille defender was close to joining Valencia during the previous summer window.
A rising talent, and a market without a ruler
Bouaddi’s arrival at City is a substantial vote of confidence in one of Europe’s most closely watched young midfielders. Still only 18, he has emerged as one of world football’s outstanding prospects, and City have committed heavily to a player viewed as a long-term investment rather than a finished article.
Meunier was careful not to let his criticism of the price tag be confused with criticism of the player. Having shared a dressing room with Bouaddi at Lille, the Belgian full-back made clear that he rates the young Moroccan highly.
“Ayyoub is incredible,” Meunier said. But, in his view, the figures attached to players are now operating in a world of their own. “There is no need to discuss money because there is no logic left,” he said.
Meunier’s blunt verdict
The defender’s point was not that Bouaddi lacks the quality for a major move, but that football’s transfer market no longer offers a reliable measure of worth. Clubs can spend enormous sums on one asset and secure another outstanding footballer for a fraction of the price, with little obvious sporting explanation.
Meunier put it in deliberately colourful terms: “You can buy a donkey for £200 million and a very good player for £20 million. It does not make sense any more.”
For Bouaddi, the City move brings the expectation that follows any nine-figure deal, even one involving a player at the beginning of his senior career. For Meunier, it is another sign that the market has misplaced its old reference points — a complaint familiar across the game, though rarely delivered with quite such a farmyard image.
SEO Title: Thomas Meunier questions market logic after Ayyoub Bouaddi’s Manchester City move
SEO Description: Thomas Meunier has praised former Lille colleague Ayyoub Bouaddi but questioned football’s transfer market after the 18-year-old Moroccan midfielder joined Manchester City for a fee close to €100 million.
