Allan Elias

Manchester City paid around €40m for a right-sided player who keeps cutting inside onto his left foot. The deal for Allan Elias, agreed in August 2026, was made up of €37.5m fixed plus €2.5m in bonuses — roughly £34.2m — and came with a five-year contract running to June 2031, with an option for a further season.

Having started out at Figueirense in his home state at the age of 12 and been registered in Brazil's BID system in April 2018, he went through every age group at Palmeiras — sub-15, sub-17, sub-20 — and collected trophies at each stage: the Campeonato Brasileiro Sub-20 in 2022 and 2024, the Copa do Brasil Sub-20 in 2022, and in 2023 both the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior and the Campeonato Paulista Sub-20.

The step up came on 16 January 2025, and it did not take long to register. By August 2026 he had made 96 appearances for the senior side in all competitions, scoring nine goals and setting up twelve more, wearing the number 40. ESPN named him Bola de Prata breakthrough of the year for 2025, judging him the best of the young players in Brazil's Série A. In 2026 he won the Campeonato Paulista with the senior team.

One line on his record stands out against the fee. When the transfer closed, Allan had never played for Brazil's senior side, and there is no official record of him appearing for the country's youth or under-21 teams either. City are buying club form.