If you want to buy one of the most exciting young midfielders in European football, it’s going to cost you roughly the price of a mid-cap crypto protocol’s entire treasury. Lille OSC chairman Olivier Létang has made that much clear, placing an asking price of €80 million to €100 million on 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi as Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich all circle.
That’s somewhere between £68 million and £86 million for a teenager who won’t turn 19 until later this year.
The valuation logic
Létang isn’t pulling numbers out of thin air. The Lille chairman has pointed to recent transfers of players he considers comparable, or in his view, less talented, that have crossed the £100 million mark. His argument is straightforward: if those players fetched nine figures, Bouaddi’s “unique qualities” and superior potential justify a price in the same neighborhood.
The floor, per Létang, is €80 million. Anything below €50 million wouldn’t even get a conversation started.
