“A Football Genius”
RSC Anderlecht is likely to lose one of its greatest talents. As the “Nieuwsblad” and the “Dernière Heurereport, 15-year-old Rayane Bounida is moving to the Ajax Amsterdam academy after the current season. Urbain Haesaert, who works as a scout for the Dutch record champions, said: “Rayane will be the sixth Belgian I bring to Ajax.”
Before Bounida, the Belgians Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld, Tom De Mul and Stanley Aborah followed a similar path as young talents. They all have in common that their training at Ajax made them professionals and some even national players. While Aborah did not take off and left the club on a free transfer, the other four players at Ajax provided transfer proceeds of 36.5 million euros.
Bounida is said to sign a professional contract in the Dutch capital. RSC Anderlecht reportedly wanted to turn the midfielder into a professional on his 15th birthday, but the talent’s family refused. The purple-whites apparently continued to try to bind Bounida to the club in the long term, but an agreement with the family is said to have failed. Because the club was probably not ready to accept the high salary demands of 700,000 euros a year, a deal did not come about. RSC Anderlecht is said to have decided against paying such an amount to a player from their own offspring. A first professional contract of this magnitude for a youth player in Belgium would reportedly have been a national record. Not all players in the first-team squad would receive such a salary, for example Bogdan Mykhaylichenko (24) is said to earn less.
On March 3, when Bounida celebrates his 16th birthday, he would be eligible to sign a professional contract with a club. For the move to Amsterdam, a “small fee” should flow to RSC Anderlecht. In addition to the Dutch, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain had also been linked with the midfield talent. The offensive player is “a football genius,” said RSC youth director Jean Kindermans. “In sixteen years of youth academy I have never seen such a phenomenon.”
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Asked about the talent’s qualities, Ajax scout Haesaert said Bounida was “always playable”. “He has excellent ball control and is one with the ball. He’s smart and anticipates what’s going to happen.” The 1.62 meter tall and 48 kilogram light talent “still lacks some strength”, but “it will come.” . “It’s not a good idea to send him to the gym right now. (…) We won’t rush anything.” It would therefore be “not wise” to use the youngster in the reserves immediately after the change in the summer. This plays in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie, the second division of the Netherlands.
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