Ajax have announced the signing of Carlos Borges from Manchester City.
The Dutch club have stumped up €14m and up to €19m in add-ons. They emphatically hijacked the deal from West Ham following their slow negotiations.
Borges has signed for his new club until 2028. However, Txiki doing Txiki has inserted a buy-back clause into the deal for the winger. With the addition of a sell-on clause of a whopping 20%.
The Manchester City winger was part of the Elite Development Squad that won three consecutive Premier League 2 titles. During the 22/23 season, Borges was their top scorer contributing an impressive 21 goals and 11 assists.
Despite the love between fans of the Blues and the Hammers, this is an exceptional career move for the 19-year-old.
Such a move shines a light on the work that Manchester City do with their academy talent and their scouting from youth level.
For some time, City have been able to accumulate wealth from their academy sales. Though, in my opinion, a club such as Ajax coming in for our young talent is a monumental step forward.
Now, some of Europe’s biggest and most successful clubs want what we have. Which illustrates the incredible youth development system that City has.