EPL transfer rumour: Southampton agree fee for Sofiane Boufal
Southampton have agreed a £21 million fee for Lille's Sofiane Boufal according to Sky Sports. If the transfer goes through, the attacking midfielder will become Southampton's costliest signing beating Dani Osvaldo for whom the Saints paid £15 Million in 2013. Boufal is actually an attacking midfielder who can play as a winger and also as a striker.
The 22-year-old scored 11 goals and assisted 4 last season before getting injured in May. The French-born player will be out till September because of the same injury and he won't be able to feature for the Saints until then. Southampton have already signed four players this summer and Boufal could become their fifth signing by next week.
The Saints have already lost Victor Wanyama, Sadio Mane, Graziano Pelle and also their manager Ronald Koeman this season. However, the Premier League club were quick in appointing a new manager with the signing of Claude Puel and the French manager has been given the task of keeping the standard of Southampton in the Premier League.
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Claude Puel and Southampton haven’t had a good start to their Premier League season (the Saints only have one point from their two games) and are have been looking to further strengthen their squad. And Sofiane Boufal might be the signing Southampton need to kick start their season.
The 22-year-old was Lille's key player last season and could be the same for the Saints too. The Moroccan was born in France and came through the youth ranks of SCO Angers. Boufal then moved to Lille in 2015 after helping Angers to promote to Ligue 1.
The midfielder made an impressive start to his Lille career by scoring three goals from 14 appearances in the 2014/15 season. Boufal was announced as the Best African player in Ligue 1 after he scored 11 goals last season. Boufal also has two International appearances to his name. The Lille player made his international debut for Morocco earlier this year, featuring in their 1-0 win over Cape Verde in March.
Sofiane Boufal, who was targeted by several other clubs like Chelsea, Juventus, Watford, etc, surely will be a great addition to the Southampton squad and the Moroccan will have a great impact on the club's performance this season. The Saints will be hoping to get the deal done early next week and help the player regain his fitness as soon as possible.