Manchester City have made their first summer signing by completing a €37m (£31.6m) deal to sign Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves.
The left-back has agreed a five-year deal at the Etihad Stadium after passing a medical and will be registered in time to make his debut at the Club World Cup.
City are set to continue buying with a £46m deal agreed to bring in midfielder Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan, which will take their spending in 2025 to around £250m after the mid-season additions of Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov.
Ait-Nouri becomes arguably the first specialist left-back signed by City since Joao Cancelo in 2019, although the 24-year-old often played as a wing-back for Wolves.
City have often used Josko Gvardiol and Nathan Ake, both bought more as centre-backs, on the left, though they finished last season with Nico O’Reilly as the regular, following in the footsteps of Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko, who were also converted from midfielders by manager Pep Guardiola.
And Ait-Nouri said Guardiola was a major motivation in joining City as he insisted they were his first choice.
“It was Manchester City from the beginning because I wanted to play for this team,” he said. “I’m very excited to work with him [Guardiola]. For me, he’s the best coach in the world. What he’s done in football and with this team is incredible. He likes to play football – I like this and I’m very excited.”
Ait-Nouri becomes the first signing made by new director of football Hugo Viana, who arrived from Sporting CP.
And he said: “Rayan is a player that as a club we have been following closely for quite some time and we are delighted he has joined us. He already has extensive Premier League experience and has also demonstrated his quality at international level with Algeria.
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“We feel sure that he will be an excellent addition to our squad and that working alongside Pep and his coaching staff will help develop his game even further. “And at just 24 he is someone we feel sure will help us in our objective to bring more success to the club.”
Ait-Nouri scored 12 goals in 157 appearances in five years at Wolves, who are set to bring in almost £100m within a few days, with Matheus Cunha set to complete a £62.5m move to Manchester United when he returns from international duty with Brazil.
City are also close to bringing Marcus Bettinelli as third-choice goalkeeper. They released Scott Carson, who made two appearances in his six seasons at the Etihad Stadium.
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