Juma Bah close to signing for Man City before leaving on loan to Lens

Young centre-back Juma Bah, one of Real Valladolid's few pleasant surprises this season, is close to continuing his meteoric rise with a move to Manchester City. According to Fabrizio Romano's announcement on Tuesday, the Sierra Leonean will leave the Spanish side to sign for the English giants, although his most likely immediate destination is a loan move to Lens.

Bah's sale is likely to go down in the history books of the club, with the biggest transfer so far being Salisu's €13million move to Southampton in 2020. The 18-year-old centre-back arrived on loan from AIK Freetong and Real Valladolid secured a €1m option to buy, which they exercised when they saw the player's potential.

It is rumoured that the defender's new termination clause with the Spanish side would be around 25 million euros, so even if Manchester City do not reach that amount, exceeding 13 million euros would make Juma Bah the best transfer in the history of the club.

The intention of the Sky Blues is to buy Bah to loan him out to Lens, a club from which Manchester City recently signed the Uzbek centre-back for 50 million euros. 

Juma Bah arrived at Real Valladolid in 2024 and the coaching staff decided to immediately promote the 18-year-old from the youth academy to the reserve team. After just one game with them, Paulo Pezzolano gave him his first-team debut in the 0-0 draw against Real Sociedad. Since then, he has made a total of 13 appearances for the Puebla outfit and has made 11 starts. Should he seal his departure to Manchester City in January, he would be one of the most meteoric breakthroughs in Spanish football of all time.