Iliman Ndiaye has completed a deadline-day move from Everton to Manchester City worth up to £65 million, signing a five-year contract at the Etihad.
Iliman Ndiaye has completed a move from Everton to Manchester City on transfer deadline day, in a deal worth up to £65 million. The package is built around a £60 million guaranteed fee with a further £5 million in add-ons, working out at around €76 million, and the Senegal international has signed a five-year contract at the Etihad Stadium that runs until 2031. Manchester City confirmed the signing on their own website on 1 September, a day after sources described the fee as agreed and Ndiaye as having been given permission to undergo a medical. It brings to an end a two-year spell on Merseyside that began when Everton signed him from Marseille.
City moved for Ndiaye after their pursuit of Liverpool's Cody Gakpo collapsed; an £80 million bid was turned down, with Liverpool unwilling to sell so late in the window. With Savio and Omar Marmoush both having left for Tottenham during the summer, Enzo Maresca's squad was short of proven wide options — City had even used Phil Foden out of position in their game against Crystal Palace for want of alternatives. Ndiaye, comfortable on either flank or through the middle as a number ten, was identified as a ready-made fix. City's director of football, Hugo Viana, said: "Iliman is a very talented footballer. He's had to work incredibly hard to reach this level."
For Everton, it is a departure that stings. Ndiaye had started both of the club's opening two Premier League fixtures this season, plus a Carabao Cup win over Preston North End, before the move went through, and had scored 17 goals in his two seasons since arriving from Marseille. The fee also fell short of Everton's own valuation, reported at around €82 million, coming only weeks after chief executive Angus Kinnear had indicated the club intended to hold on to its best players. Everton do get some cover in the same area of the pitch: Jack Grealish has joined on a season-long loan from Manchester City as part of the same deadline-day business, giving David Moyes a replacement option even as they lose one of their most watchable attackers.
Ndiaye's output so far this season is modest — no goals and one assist from 90 minutes of Premier League action before the transfer — but that reflects a small early-season sample rather than any dip in form. Since joining Everton, the 26-year-old built a reputation as one of the Premier League's more entertaining dribblers, two-footed and equally comfortable cutting inside or running at defenders from the flank. "I've worked my whole life for an opportunity like this," Ndiaye said. "City are one of the best clubs in the world, and there was nothing else I wanted other than to join Manchester City."
At City, Ndiaye adds depth and variety to an attack reshaped by the departures of Savio and Marmoush, giving Maresca a genuine option across the front line rather than a specialist confined to one role. He is not a direct replacement for a back-up striker behind Erling Haaland — that remains a gap in the squad — but his ability to play wide or centrally should ease the rotation problems City faced without him. How much game time he gets, and where Maresca uses him, should become clearer once the season is properly under way.
Manchester City now have another attacking option who can play across the front line, which feeds into how bawler.ai reads their likely goal threat and squad depth as Enzo Maresca's first season takes shape. Everton lose a regular starter and creative outlet, so their attacking numbers will be reassessed as the team adjusts to playing without him and with Jack Grealish coming in on loan. These are changes to personnel and expected output on the pitch, not a prediction about results.
Bawler's FPL model projects Ndiaye at 3.9 points a gameweek at 13% ownership, with a 75% chance of starting. It does not publish a before-and-after for a transfer, so the figure is his projection at Manchester City, not a delta.
A sourcing score, not a chance of completion: it grades how solid the reporting behind the move is. The stage and the evidence come from the sources listed below; the arithmetic is fixed in code, the same for every deal.