The attacking midfielder attracted interest from Bundesliga, Premier League and Serie A sides, but Ajax has snapped him up for a bargain 11 million euros.
The summer transfer window has been one of plentiful long-running transfer sagas. Paul Pogba’s world-record move from Juventus to Manchester United was as drawn out as it was expensive, while deals for Gonzalo Higuain, Gabriel Barbosa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Shkodran Mustafi and many more generated a great deal of headlines. Those deals tended to be predictable a long time before being concluded, but there has been one transfer which has been lengthy, surprising and more confusing than any other this year.