Manchester City youngster Rony Lopes has joined Monaco on a five-year deal.
The Portugese midfielder was rumoured to be on the verge of joining the French side on a loan deal, with manager Manuel Pellegrini stating in a recent press conference that this would be the case, but it was announced on Friday afternoon by the official Manchester City twitter account that he has in fact joined permanently for a fee believed to be in the region of £8 million.
The news comes as a shock to fans as Lopes was seen as part City’s future plans, making a number of cup appearances for the Blues before being loaned out to Lille, where he enjoyed a fruitful spell south of the continent. He certainly looked like he was destined for good things at The Etihad; sometimes being labelled as City’s most promising EDS player.
Along with Jason Denayer and Kelchi Iheanacho, Lopes was officially promoted to the first team from the youth system earlier this month, showing that the club saw him as a big part of their future ambitions, but he leaves for Monaco where he will arguably gain more first team experience at this stage of his career.
Lopes joined City from SL Benfica back in 2011 at the tender age of 15, but had to wait until January 2013 for his first appearance in the first team, coming on as an 88th minute substitute for David Silva in the FA Cup encounter with this weekend’s Premier League opponents Watford. He scored in this game to help City to a 3-0 victory, making him the youngest ever goal scorer for the club at the age of 17 years and 9 days.
Good luck, Rony!
