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Done dealUpdated 10:16 UK · 22 Aug

Tijjani Reijnders to Al Qadsiah
Man City sell for €61m

Manchester CityManchester CityAl QadsiahFee€61mReliability100%
The story so far
  1. 19 Aug
    Transfer confirmed
    Manchester City and Al Qadsiah both announced the completed transfer, with Reijnders signing a five-year contract.
  2. 13 Aug
    Fee agreed
    Manchester City and Al Qadsiah agreed a transfer fee, with personal terms still to be settled with Reijnders.

The move in full

Manchester City have sold Tijjani Reijnders to Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah for a reported €61m, a year after signing him from AC Milan.

Tijjani Reijnders has completed a move from Manchester City to Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah, in a deal reported at around €61m. The Netherlands international has signed a five-year contract, keeping him at the Saudi club until 2031. Both clubs confirmed the transfer on 19 August, roughly a week after Manchester City and Al Qadsiah agreed a fee and began finalising personal terms with the player. The move comes almost exactly a year after City paid Milan around €55m for Reijnders' signature.

Al Qadsiah, backed by the Saudi state oil company Aramco, wanted a proven, high-level midfielder to strengthen a squad preparing for its first campaign in the AFC Champions League Elite. The club, managed by former Liverpool and Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers, finished fourth in the Saudi Pro League last season and are targeting silverware on four fronts this season, domestically and continentally. At 28, Reijnders brings Premier League and Serie A pedigree, plus recent Netherlands international experience, and should still be in the peak years of his career.

For Manchester City, the sale is part of a wider midfield rebuild under new manager Enzo Maresca, who replaced Pep Guardiola at the Etihad in June. Reijnders had been training away from City's main group ahead of the move, having already lost his starting place during the second half of last season, when Guardiola preferred pairing Bernardo Silva with Rodri through the middle. City have put funds from outgoing sales, Reijnders' included, towards a summer midfield overhaul that has brought in Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116m, with a deal for Ayyoub Bouaddi also being finalised.

Reijnders' first season at City had promised more than it delivered. He scored and set up another on his Premier League debut against Wolves, and went on to make 47 appearances in all competitions, scoring seven goals and winning both the FA Cup and the League Cup. But by February he had been reduced to a bit-part role, starting only two league games for the rest of the campaign. He still played three matches for the Netherlands at this summer's World Cup, before their exit to Morocco on penalties in the last 32.

At Al Qadsiah, Reijnders should get the regular football he was missing at City, in a midfield being built to control matches in the Saudi Pro League and compete continentally. Speaking after the move was confirmed, he pointed to the scale of the club's ambition, saying he had come "to try and win trophies with my teammates" across the four competitions Al Qadsiah are entering this season. Rodgers has said his side will "give our best" and aim to win at least one of those four titles, with Reijnders expected to add both goal threat and midfield know-how.

The deal also has a knock-on effect in Italy. A sell-on clause from Reijnders' move to City means Milan collect a further payment from this sale, taking their total profit on the player to around €56m, just over a year after letting him go.

What it does to the model

Reijnders had already lost his starting spot at Manchester City before this move, so his departure changes little about the goals and chances bawler.ai expects City to produce this season. For Al Qadsiah, adding a Premier League-tested midfielder ahead of their first AFC Champions League Elite campaign is the kind of squad change our models pick up once he starts featuring, through the chances he helps create and the goals his side scores and concedes in Saudi Pro League and continental matches.

How this is scored100%
  • Announced by the clubs100

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.

Sources

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Where this move lands

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