Wolves pounce for Agbadou
Yesterday at 08:00 AM
Premier League strugglers Wolves have bolstered their defensive options with the signing of Emmanuel Agbadou from Reims for a reported fee of €18 million.
The Ivory Coast international has been an almost ever-present for the Red and Whites this season, featuring in all but one of their 16 matches in Ligue 1 – he missed the 1-1 draw with Lyon due to an accumulation of yellow cards.
Agbadou quickly established himself as a first-team regular at the Stade Auguste-Delaune following his arrival from Eupen in July 2022, although disciplinary issues saw him ruled out for five league games in 2022-23 after picking up five yellow cards and three reds,
The 27-year-old centre-back was handed the captain’s armband this term to underline his importance to the club, but they’ve now decided to sell after deeming the offer from the Old Gold too good to turn down.
Agbadou has put pen to paper on a four-and-a-half year deal at Molineux with an option to extend by an additional 12 months as Wanderers manager Vitor Pereira looks to firm up a leaky defence which has conceded the most goals (45) in the top flight this season.
“We’re delighted to welcome Emmanuel to the club. He’s a player our recruitment team have watched for a long time and Vitor agreed that he was the right player and the right character to strengthen our squad now,” Wolves chairman Jeff Shi told the club’s official website.
“It was important we completed the transfer early in the window to help Vitor straight away, and, like all transfers, this one took a lot of hard work from a lot of people. I hope Emmanuel has a successful career at Wolves, and he’ll have the full support of everyone during his time here.”
Sporting director Matt Hobbs added: “The fact that he was on ours and Vitor’s lists shows that he’s well rounded, good on the ball, physically excellent, quick and a good personality. Then being made captain of Reims has really taken his game to the next level, and you can never have enough leaders.
“When Vitor came in it’s the first conversation we had, to add one quick. There are so many games in January, so you can’t afford to waste a month. We have to use this month to be as efficient as possible, and we’re really excited about this signing.”
