Premier League club Southampton smashed their transfer record on Monday to swoop for Lille\u2019s Morocco international midfielder Sofiane Boufal.<\/p>\n
Southampton\u2019s previous record signing was Dani Osvaldo, who cost \u00a315 million from Roma in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very, very happy to sign for Southampton and I am really excited to play in St Mary\u2019s Stadium in front of the fans,\u201d Boufal told Southampton\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouthampton showed big interest in signing me, and I can see that this club is the best place for me to continue my progression as a footballer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I can achieve many great things with Southampton. It is a very good club, with excellent facilities, and I feel it is the perfect environment to continue my development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lille said earlier that only the medical visit could hold up the transfer.<\/p>\n
Boufal underwent surgery in Qatar in May on his right knee cartilage. He will not be available to play until at least the end of the September.<\/p>\n
Lille\u2019s deputy general manager Jean-Michel Vandamme told AFP: \u201cWe have been very transparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know everything and if they hire him it is on that basis,\u201d the Lille official added.<\/p>\n
Boufal became one of the most highly-rated youngsters in France after moving from Angers in January 2015.<\/p>\n
He attracted Southampton\u2019s interest after scoring 12 goals in all competitions last season to help Lille finish fifth in Ligue 1 and qualify for the Europa League, while also reaching the Coupe de la Ligue final.<\/p>\n
\u201cSofiane is a player we have watched develop closely over the last few years, and we\u2019re thrilled to have him join the club ahead of what promises to be a very exciting season, with Europa League football on the horizon,\u201d Southampton\u2019s executive director of football Les Reed said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis excellent campaign with Lille last season meant a number of clubs were pursuing him to secure his services, but we\u2019re delighted that Sofiane sees Southampton as the best place for him to continue his development.<\/p>\n
Claude Puel, who took over as Saints manager during the close-season, had plenty of chances to watch Boufal up close after spending the last four years as boss of Ligue 1 side Nice.<\/p>\n
Boufal is Southampton\u2019s latest expensive recruit. They spent \u00a310 million to sign Nathan Redmond from Norwich and \u00a312 million on Bayern Munich\u2019s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.<\/p>\n
Puel had been looking to add more firepower to his squad after Saints sold last season\u2019s top scorers Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Premier League club Southampton smashed their transfer record on Monday to swoop for Lille’s Morocco international midfielder Sofiane Boufal. Boufal, 22, agreed a five-year contract with the Saints and is reported to have cost £16 million ($20 million\/ 18 million euros). Southampton’s previous record signing was Dani Osvaldo, who cost £15 million from Roma in 2013. “I’m very, very happy to sign for Southampton and I am really excited to play in St Mary’s Stadium in front of the fans,” Boufal told Southampton’s website. “Southampton showed big interest in signing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2167,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165\/revisions\/2167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}