LONDON – Watford broke their club record transfer fee on Thursday with the signing of Senegal winger Ismaïla Sarr from Rennes.
The 21-year-old signed a five-year contract a couple of hours before the end of the transfer window.
Media reports suggested the fee would be around £25 million.
Sarr featured for Senegal in their run to the Africa Cup of Nations final a few weeks ago, where they lost to Riyad Mahrez’s Algeria.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/izosarr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@izosarr? 🇸🇳 pic.twitter.com/Ut4S6dIbSi
— Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC)
Watford said in a statement that Sarr played for Metz in Ligue 1 initially, before moving to Rennes, for whom he earned 77 caps and scored 18 goals.
Sarr is the fourth signing for Watford this summer, joining Danny Welbeck, Craig Dawson and Tom Dele-Bashiru.
He will don the No 23 shirt at Vicarage Road.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/Ligue1_ENG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Ligue1_ENGstats of #WatfordFC's club record signing @izosarr. #PL pic.twitter.com/cb7uKQlaKM
— Watford StatZone (@watfordsz)