Manchester City's under-21 captain Shea Charles is set to join Southampton this summer on a permanent transfer.
Charles, 19, made his senior debut for City on the final day of the Premier League season after leading the under-21 side to a third-successive Premier League 2 title.
The Northern Ireland international has eight caps for his country, and can play across the defence or in midfield. He earned praise from Pep Guardiola for his performances over the season, where he was included in the matchday squad on three occasions, culminating in his senior club debut at Brentford.
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Now, he will become the latest City academy prospect to move to St Mary's after four made the permanent switch last summer. Southampton will pay an initial £10.5m for Charles, rising to £15m in add-ons.
City will also have a buy-back option on the midfielder, as well as a sizeable sell-on clause, as the transfer is finalised.
The fee is still well short of the record paid for a Nothern Ireland player that was set in 2020 when Newcastle paid Norwich between £13.5-15 million for left back Jamal Lewis.
Prior to that, Jonny Evans moved from Manchester United to West Brom for £8 million in 2015.
Charles follows Romeo Lavia, Sam Edozie, Gavin Bazunu and Juan Larios who all signed for Southampton last summer for collective fees of around £40m. This week, young goalkeeper Josh McNamara also joined Southampton's academy from City's.
Southampton's new Director of Football Jason Wilcox will be fully aware of Charles' quality, having left City at the end of the season where he was Head of Academy in recent years.
Charles would take City's academy incoming to over £25m this summer, with goalkeeper James Trafford to join Burnley for £15m, rising to £19m. The Blues are also £10m better off thanks to a sell-on clause in the permanent sale of Pedro Porro to Tottenham from Sporting.
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