Bournemouth sign winger Adli for £25m

Bournemouth have signed winger Amine Adli for £25.1m from Bayer Leverkusen.

The 25-year-old is the Cherries’ seventh signing of the summer and has joined on a five-year contract.

The Morocco international primarily plays off the left but has also featured as a number 10 and on the right flank.

Adli played 143 matches for Leverkusen, scoring 10 goals and providing 12 assists in 42 games in 2023-24 as they won the Bundesliga and German Cup double under former manager Xabi Alonso.

Bournemouth have now spent nearly £350m on signings under the ownership of American billionaire Bill Foley, who took over the club just before the January 2023 window.

The Cherries have also been active in selling players, with defenders Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi all leaving for a combined £150m – to Liverpool, Real Madrid and Paris St-Germain respectively – this summer.

Adli usually plays as a left winger, but can also play as an attacking midfielder.

He joined Bayer Leverkusen in 2021, a bit before Xabi Alonso arrived as manager… but never managed to establish himself as a clear starter.

He was always on the fringes – coming in as a super-sub [with] players like Florian Wirtz and Nathan Tella ahead of him.

Before the championship-winning season in 2023-24 Adli played many more games because Wirtz was injured.

Adli has played mostly on the left wing or inside as a left-sided number 10, or as an attacking midfielder a little more centrally.

Usually he features on the left one way or another – and in Andoni Iraola’s 4-1-4-1 system right now he would probably be the man on the left wing.

When we look at Bournemouth’s starting XI for their first Premier League match against Liverpool, David Brooks played off the left wing but from what I know, he is more of a right winger. Then there is Luis Sinisterra, who is injured, so I think there is an opening for a left winger.

I think it’s a fair deal in terms of price. At 25 he is still a young player, not quite at his peak in terms of athleticism.