Fee and structure emerge as key talking points
Lille have made their position clear on Ayyoub Bouaddi: €80-100 million, and a loan-back arrangement is preferred. That's the word from France, where the Ligue 1 club's president Olivier Létang has set his asking price for the 18-year-old midfielder.
Bouaddi has been one of the summer's more intriguing stories. His performances for Morocco at the World Cup in North America accelerated interest that City already had in the player heading into the window. The Blues were recently reported to be working on a deal that would see him sign now and stay at Lille on loan for another season, joining Enzo Maresca's squad for the 2027-28 campaign.
According to RMC Sport's Fabrice Hawkins, Létang wants a fee in that eight-figure range. The preference from Lille's side is for a sale that includes a one-year loan back at Stade Pierre-Mauroy — a structure that would allow Bouaddi to continue developing in familiar surroundings before making the step up to the Premier League. It echoes the arrangement City used with River Plate for Julian Alvarez in 2022, though that was a six-month loan rather than a full season.
That stance from Lille narrows the gap between what the selling club want and what City are understood to be planning. Both parties now appear to be in agreement on the broad shape of a deal, leaving the fee as the primary point of negotiation.
The €80-100 million range would represent a significant outlay for a player who wouldn't be available to Maresca until the summer of 2027. But it sits within the kind of spending that sporting director Hugo Viana has shown he's willing to commit to for players identified as long-term parts of his squad rebuild.
The alignment on structure between the clubs represents meaningful progress in what had previously looked like a more complex negotiation. The two sides are now separated primarily by the question of fee rather than the fundamental mechanics of how the deal would work.
Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid are also understood to hold an interest in Bouaddi. Lille's willingness to brief their asking price publicly suggests they're actively inviting competing offers rather than treating City as the only serious suitor at this stage.
Whether City are prepared to meet that valuation or whether Viana will try to negotiate the fee closer to the lower end of that €80-100 million range remains the defining question in a pursuit that appears to be gathering pace on both sides as the summer window enters a more decisive phase.