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."

[Hammer-ed]

"Coffee he certainly ""came to the rescue"" and he was ""FAB"" yesterday."

[VirginiaHam]

That tackle on Calum Wilson. Mind blowing. No margin for error.

[eusebiovic]

He's an upgrade on Issa Diop - his level of concentration is also far superior...top player. Something positive to take out of this season

[Crassus]

"Great bit near the end of the game tight down our left corner area, Emerson backed him up, then he backed Emerson, who won the ball and played it off theirs for our throw Nayef grabbed Emerson by the temples and pulled him in to applaud his work, signs of real leadership - agree, post Rice captain material Has the potential to have been a bargain, a Rolls Royce defender in the making"

[Coffee]

Thunderbird 2

[Iron Duke]

He is our Virgil. Different class. Just hope he stays fit.

[Stevethehammer]

"Adds a real calmness to the defence and seems like a top, honest pro, strong in the air and seems like a good bloke too. As others have said, seems captain material once Dec leaves."

[w4hammer]

looks and acts a real leader - was bantering with all the players yesterday on both sides plus the ref still cant get how he missed the header for 2-1 ;-)

[Full Claret Jacket]

"If he stays fit then he won't be at our club very long. He is top quality. His pace, tackling, awareness and distribution is all you want from a modern centre back. His only slight weakness is his heading at times but alongside Ogbonna and Zouma that isn't an issue. An astounding signing given some of the duds we have had."

[Lily Hammer]

"As well as goal of the month/season, there should be save of the m/s, for goalies, and tackle of the m/s for defenders. That tackle yesterday would be a real contender. All my instincts told me it wasn’t possible. He was too late and would surely give away a penalty. Incredible tackle, and we won’t see many or any better this season."

[Percy Dalton]

Thought he'd injured himself again after that great tackle on Wilson. Has terrific pace and has become very vocal in marshaling the defence. Should be the skipper once Rice goes in the Summer

[Mex Martillo]

"Been great last few games, was excellent yesterday Massive signing Got the makings of a great player"

[chedylan 2]

from 3 days before: CandH has learned this afternoon that the club medics believe there is no serious damage and are reasonably certain that the central defender will be available for what could be his toughest 90 minutes of the season against Erling Haaland LOL

[chedylan 2]

from 3 days before: CandH has learned this afternoon that the club medics believe there is no serious damage and are reasonably certain that the central defender will be available for what could be his toughest 90 minutes of the season against Erling Haaland LOL

[Side of Ham]

Your sources for things like this are usually right aren’t they North? so that is good news….

[Lee Trundle]

"Kinda good news then, Norf. I was expecting a little longer seeing how fucked he looked coming off."

[Norflundon]

Been told it was only a minor op and they expect him back in training in 4 weeks obviously he’ll of missed preseason so can’t imagine we’ll see him ready till end of September at the earliest

[13 Brentford Rd]

"The olde injury curse is back to haunt our CBs. Can't sell Diop now. Zouma is bound to pick up more injuries, Dawson is injured and another along with Ogbonna who's getting on. Thought it a strange decision to offer Oggy, at his age another year after such a serious injury. I wouldn't have sold Diop in any case. He's shown that he's a very good defender previously, is still young and is reliable fitness wise and we will clearly need him."

[RoyalDocksGK]

I don't think we'll be seeing him until after the world cup.

[fraser]

"Wd40- ffs this isn't people criticising the club, so no need for you to defend it"

[wd40]

Got injured getting stuck in while training. Sounding good to me. Look on the positive side for once maybe.

[Jimmy Neighbour]

"It's normal for us to be pessimistic and to fear the worse, but they are saying the op went well and the timescale is 3 months. it's when they say no timescale of 6-9 months is when it could be really bad. no reason why he can't come back just as strong, not that i'm an ankle ligament expert!"

[fraser]

If only there had been a left back available who could play centre back too..............

[Full Claret Jacket]

The injury is an absolute disaster. Very hard to recover from ankle problems. The injury was caused by his bad touch and desire to make up for it. I honestly think the club is cursed.

[Travelling Iron]

So all you know alls questioning why we were chasing so many centre halfs and not a striker must be eating your hats now!