Issa Kabore has joined Olympique Marseille on a season-long loan from Manchester City and has the option to turn the move permanent if l’OM pay €20m (£16.9m).
All documents are finally ready for Issa Kaboré to Olympique Marseille. He can be considered new OM player as paperworks are approved. 🔵🇧🇫 #OM #TeamOM
Confirmed: Manchester City will have a buy back option available in the next years.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 17, 2022
City have also protected themselves from losing a valuable asset by adding a buyback clause, so it’s clear they rate Kabore highly despite being open to his departure.
Where will Manchester City finish in the Premier League this season?
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th or lower
The 21-year-old was named Best Young Player at the Africa Cup of Nations and impressed on loan at ESTAC Troyes to get himself a host of suitors. Kabore may have been retained in City’s first-team had he been a left-back after Pep Guardiola sold Oleksandr Zinchenko, but instead he made a difficult but correct decision.
Sergio Gomez recently joined City and will push for a starting place on the left, so Joao Cancelo could return to his favoured right-back position. Kabore, if kept, would have Kyle Walker and Cancelo for competition, so he’d likely spend the season on the bench or out of the matchday squad.
Guardiola recognised this and has allowed him to join an even better Ligue 1 club this campaign which should do wonders for his development. And if he shines, City could bag themselves €20m for a player they paid £4m for in 2020.
But the buyback clause allows them to re-sign Kabore for a slight mark-up if he’s risen to a level greater than Walker or Cancelo.
That’s if Marseille sign him, however, as there’s a chance they don’t trigger the buying option next summer. And should that happen, could Kabore battle an aging Walker for a spot in the City team in 2023?
In other news, Man City requesting £84m for Bernardo Silva who ‘asked’ to be sold this summer