Nayef Aguerd - signed (30m)

[Coffee]

"OS West Ham United complete Nayef Aguerd transfer West Ham United are delighted to announce the signing of Morocco international defender Nayef Aguerd. The 26-year-old joins the Hammers from French Ligue 1 club Rennes on a five-year contract and adds further quality and depth to David Moyes‚Äô squad. He will wear the No27 shirt. Aguerd has enjoyed two impressive seasons with Rennes, enhancing the reputation he established at FUS Rabat, Dijon and with the Moroccan national team. Now, the left-sided player will continue his career in the English Premier League, where his combination of talents will see him provide strong competition for Craig Dawson, Issa Diop, Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma. ‚ÄúI was really excited when I heard about West Ham United's interest,‚Äù said Aguerd, an impressive individual who speaks fluent French, English, Arabic and Spanish. ‚ÄúWhen I heard about it, I knew I needed to go to the Premier League, because it‚Äôs a dream for every player. ‚ÄúWest Ham is a historic Club. I saw a few of their games this year, and I saw the fans and the atmosphere were fantastic, with the bubbles! ‚ÄúI talked with the manager and he showed me that he was very interested, so it was easy to choose to come to West Ham.‚Äù Aguerd was born in the city of K?©nitra in the north of Morocco into a footballing family. His father played in the Moroccan top-flight, while his uncle Abdelmajid Bouyboud was capped 34 times and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals ‚Äì an achievement his nephew could emulate in Qatar later this year. As a boy, Aguerd represented local club KAC of K?©nitra before being scouted and recruited to the national Mohammed VI Football Academy in the capital city of Rabat, where he spent four years playing alongside the likes of Sevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri. In 2014, aged 18, he joined leading club Rabat FUS, making 12 appearances in his debut season and attracting the attention of a host of leading Spanish clubs. After bulking up and working hard on his game, Aguerd then inspired FUS to their first-ever Moroccan Championship in May 2016, scoring a vital goal against Ittihad Tanger that all but clinched the title. After scoring in the 2017 CAF Champions League and impressing regularly for FUS over the next two seasons, Aguerd joined French Ligue 1 club Dijon in 2018. Two encouraging seasons for Les Rouges led to a transfer to Rennes, where he started the club‚Äôs first-ever UEFA Champions League match at home to Russian side Krasnodar and featured in four of six group-stage fixtures in the autumn of 2020. Aguerd has thrived at Roazhon Park, making 66 Ligue 1 appearances and helping Rennes qualify for Europe in each of the last two seasons. He scored twice in seven UEFA Europa Conference League appearances and started 31 Ligue 1 games as Rennes finished fourth last term. At international level, the defender was capped at U20 and U23 level before making his senior debut against Albania in August 2016. Two years later, he helped Morocco win the African Nations Championship on home turf. He is now a regular in the Atlas Lions‚Äô starting XI with 25 senior caps and was an ever-present in Morocco‚Äôs successful 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign and run to the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals. Everyone at West Ham United would like to welcome Nayef to London Stadium and wish him all the best for his career in Claret and Blue."

[DiCaniosLefty]

Welcome aboard Aggy! Looks a good get from the clips.

[Matthew Holmes]

Loved CFC in that interview telling him what the fans expect. Yes Carlton son. Yes

[gph]

"Football's bloody wonderful. Every position demands a whole range of attributes. A weakness in one, can be more than compensated in another. An archetypical centre back is a lump, true, but reading the game, speed of thought and foot, personal authority are other attributes useful in the position, West Ham is the former home of a very atypical centre back, chock full of vision and skill,"

[,]

"If Oggy is fully fit Moyes might play a back three. Zouma, Aggy, Oggy."

[the exile]

"So if Ogbonna is fully fit, who starts? Probably not a straightforward question as Ogbonna needs to build up his match fitness, but still..."

[,]

Has he been injured yet.

[Lee Trundle]

LOL @ Pickled for suggesting someone to beef up! Zero self-awareness.

[Hammer and Pickle]

The club will have to organise some PIES or he'll get stick for being lightweight playing in that position in the Prem.

[southbankbornnbred]

"Steady on, Leroy's. That would indicate that we're, you know...highly organised and know what we're doing."

[LeroysBoots]

Let's hope we get our skates on and buy more before the pre season starts. Perhaps we can tell West Ham.that you can do concurrent deals !

[Dr Matt]

Areola Zouma Aguerd Rice Soucek Broja An excellent spine of the team. Very exciting times! ?üòÄ

[zebthecat]

Fingers and toes crossed but he looks like good one.

[pdcwhu]

Yessssssss Hazzzzz

[White Pony]

Yeah he comes across really well in that interview with CFC. Obviously has a brain on him. Like the cut of his jib.

[RM10]

"I must be getting old can’t get excited about players I don’t even know, add Broja to that aswell, would like to see some decent championship players come in and Hickey."

[Tomshardware]

Really pleased with this signing.

[Pedro]

He reminds me of Laporte with the way he plays. If he is half as good as him we have a player! Great interview. Really clued up and seems to have a great work ethic. His knowledge of the number 6 shirt may have already been teed up but nice to hear.

[fraser]

"Definitely an area we need strengthening, hope he's good enough to do so. Can't expect Ogbonna to be back to his best and Zouma playing out of position weakens both sides of Central defence"

[fraser]

"Definitely an area we need strengthening, hope he's good enough to do so. Can't expect Ogbonna to be back to his best and Zouma playing out of position weakens both sides of Central defence"

[Kaiser Zoso]

"The official PR stuff from the club is interesting, looks like his wife and possibly brother came along with him to Rush Green, and he’d already met a few members of the club when he arrived. Maybe that explains the amount of delays in getting the deal signed, the club having to make travel arrangements, book hotel accommodation, transport etc. He’d be pretty committed to the deal by the time all of these are scheduled for him and his family."

[LeroysBoots]

"Comes across as a sound lad, great little interview here with Carlton https://youtu.be/7AotMp40mXE"

[Mex Martillo]

"He does look a good signing. Well done Moyes and Newman, we need a few more though... Africa cup thing will be a pain with this guy. Excellent clip charleyfarley 8:49 Mon Jun 20"

[the coming of gary]

excellent signing ... i also like his Morocco team mate Ilias Chair who plays for QPR .

[Takashi Miike]

"very good player, but yet again they're strengthening an area where we already have depth. It wouldn't be a shock if diop's on his way"

[arsegrapes]

"I'm not aiming to piss on anyone's chips, but I won't be wetting my dungarees just yet as I remember Julien Faubert look like Roberto Carlos on YouTube and even Real Madrid had their pants pulled down."