Elliot Anderson has become the most expensive British footballer of all time after completing a £116 million move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City on Tuesday.Anderson is currently away on World Cup duty with England having started all three of the Three Lions group stage games but has still found time to pass his medical and complete a record-breaking transfer.City announced that Anderson “has completed a medical in Kansas. The formalities of the move will be finalised upon his return to England”.The 23-year-old midfielder has established himself as one of the hottest properties in England football having moved from Newcastle United to Forest in 2024 for just £35m.Anderson made 92 appearances at Forest, helping the club seal seventh place in his first campaign as they returned to European football for the first time in two decades.Last season saw Forest finish down in 16th place but Anderson was a key player as they reached the Europa League semi-finals, losing to eventual winners Aston Villa.City's previous record signing was the £100m they forked out to Aston Villa for Jack Grealish in 2021, which was also the previous highest paid for a British player.Anderson joins just days after City announced the appointment of Enzo Maresca as their new manager replacing Pep Guardiola who left the role after 10 years in charge during the summer.Anderson was born on Tyneside and played for the same Wallsend Boys Club that also helped launch the careers of numerous professional footballers, including future England internationals Peter Beardsley, Alan Shearer and Michael Carrick.He joined Newcastle at the age of eight, making his senior debut in January 2021 in an FA Cup third round defeat against Arsenal before making his Premier League bow as a late substitute versus the same opposition little over a week later.Anderson would join third-tier Bristol Rovers on loan deal a year later where he would help the third-tier side secure promotion to League One after scoring seven goals in 21 games.“He just came into the building and showed his potential straight away. Nothing seemed to faze him. You could see straight away this boy was different,” said former Republic of Ireland international Glenn Whelan, who was player-coach at Rovers,“As the coach, there were certain scenarios in training when I tried to put him under a little pressure. Some kids would be a little bit more reserved and fall back. Elliot was right on the front foot. He took the bull by the horns.“He just had a confidence about him to show everyone how good he was. It was not arrogance. He'd obviously had a great upbringing from his family and he had that Geordie in him.”▶He returned to Newcastle where he would go on to earn a regular spot in the first-team squad but was sacrificed in the summer of 2024 as the Magpies were forced into making sales to avoid breaking profit and sustainability rules (PSR).“It was something we regretted when we were doing it. We knew that would be a very, very painful transfer,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe would go on to say. “We had no choice, but it was probably the most reluctant transfer I’ll ever do.”The move would immediately pay dividends for Anderson who established himself as a fulcrum in the Forest midfield, earning his first England cap in a World Cup qualifying victory over Andorra.“With Elliot, first of all, he is an amazing talent for such a young player,” the then Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo told Sky Sports in November 2024. “He is competitive and wants to improve. He knows he is good but wants to be better. That is the first step. We are delighted to have him. I think it was a very good deal.”Anderson was a youth international for Scotland before switching to England in 2021, helping the Three Lions win the 2025 Under-21 European Championship where his performances would earn a spot in the Team of the Tournament.Current England manager Thomas Tuchel, who handed him his senior debut, is in no doubt of his talents. “He's a top player,” the German coach said ahead of the World Cup. “There's nothing more to say, he's the full package. I'm happy that he's with us on that kind of level and he's a key player for us.”