Bakambu transfer still “in process”—set to be largest ever for an African footballer

No, Cedric Bakambu has not officially left Villarreal yet. His twitter still says he’s a Villarreal player, he still shows up on the squad list on the official Villarreal website. As for Cedric himself, he’s tweeted photos of himself looking at his cell phone in China, and undergoing what looked like an MRI scan as part of his medical (which we know he passed).

However, the discussions about payments evidently continue. French sports daily L’Equipe reported that since the Chinese league is peanlizing large transfer fees paid for foreign players by adding penalties, Baka’s cost would actually be over €70m, not €40m. In addition, Beijing Gouan have apparently agreed to pay him something like €18m per year (including taxes) which is just silly money compared to what he is earning now (€2.5m or so). Guess that’s why he didn’t want to wait for a middling EPL side to make an offer in summer.

No indication that the deal won’t get done, Villarreal certainly is assuming it will but note we signed Roger Martinez on a loan with a purchase option just in case.