One of the bright spots in his team’s rather desolate season, Lille’s Boubakary Soumaré has, in just 400 minutes of football, managed to convince two of the more attractive teams in Europe he’s worth spending over €10m on.
That doesn’t mean the Ligue 1 club agreed he should leave, but both Manchester City and Monaco, according to La Voix du Nord, gave it a go.
It was, however, in vain, as Gerard Lopez, Lille’s owner, decided to block all departures on transfer deadline day in an attempt to keep their best players and avoid relegation.
The French newspaper claim Pep Guardiola’s side were ‘willing to gamble’ on the 18-year-old’s talent for around €12m + a handful of bonuses, an amount their Champions League opponents last year were also intending to spend on the France U19 international.
Given a run in the team by Christophe Galtier following Marcelo Bielsa’s necessary departure, Soumaré has started three of his club’s last five games and given fans something to look forward to going into the second half of the season.
One for Manchester City to return to in the summer.
