Manchester City sign Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for a British-record £116m

Manchester City have signed Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116m, a fee that makes the 23-year-old the most expensive British footballer in history. The move, confirmed by City, edges past the £115m Real Madrid paid Borussia Dortmund for Jude Bellingham in 2023 and comfortably clears the club’s own previous record, the £100m spent on Jack Grealish in 2021.

A record built on guaranteed cash

What sets the deal apart is that the full £116m is guaranteed, with no add-ons propping up the headline figure. Anderson has agreed a five-year contract at the Etihad, with the option of a further year, and could earn up to £300,000 a week once bonuses are included. In cash terms it sits among the biggest fees any Premier League club has ever paid, though that ranking looks less dramatic once decades of football inflation are factored in.

A medical between World Cup games

The timing is unusual, because Anderson is in the middle of a tournament. He is with England at the World Cup and was cleared by the national team to complete his medical at their training base in Kansas City between matches. He passed it, but will only formally complete the switch once England’s campaign is over. He chose City ahead of Manchester United and a handful of other interested clubs.

What City are getting

Anderson has climbed quickly. Two years ago Forest signed him from Newcastle for around £35m; he has since broken into the England squad and reached the World Cup, and now he leaves for more than three times that fee. For City he is a home-grown player still short of his peak, the kind of long-term bet Pep Guardiola has increasingly favoured. The outlay is enormous. Whether it proves smart will be judged over the five years ahead, not this summer.

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