OFFICIAL: Newcastle United and Lille agree on fee, Sven Botman signs five-year deal

After Fabrizio Romano revealed the deal a few days ago, it’s now become official: Newcastle United has a deal in place with French side LOSC Lille for the signing of Dutch and 22-year-old defender Sven Botman.

Botman has, as officially reported on Newcastle United’s website, signed a five-year deal with the Tyneside organization in a move that will see him don black and white threads until the end of the 2026/27 campaign at the very least if he stays with the Toon for the full duration of his deal.

Both Jamie Reuben and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, part-owners of NUFC since last October’s takeover, already welcomed Sven to St James’ Park in a rather pleasing way.

This signing comes after a months-long chase that started all the way back in January when Newcastle was about to sign Botman only to find trouble convincing Lille to sell the player to the men in black in the winter window. It’s been long assumed that Botman wanted to join the Magpies back then, and he’s now finally completing his dream move after having rejected the Italian giants of AC Milan in the process.

Although the agreed fee is undisclosed, Fabrizio Romano informed about it yesterday quoting it at around €37M. That seems about right, as other media members such as Keith Downie from Sky Sports reported similar figures at about the same time.

Botman visited the Magpies facilities yesterday as he underwent his medical with the club to seal the deal.

This move is coming at the perfect time, with just a couple of days left on Newcastle’s resting period before the club staffers and players reunite on July 1 to kick the preseason training off. As of this writing, the Magpies have their first scheduled friendly in late July when they’ll face Benfica away from home at Estadio da Luz on July 26. More games are expected to pop up NUFC’s schedule after those pertaining to the Ohio Cup to be held in the USA got canceled in May while scheduled for the month of July.

Botman, a product of Ajax Academy, spent 10 years in the Ajax system before getting loaned out to fellow Dutch club Heerenveen for a year before he got purchased by Lille for €8M. The Franche-based team has now more than tripled that figure with this selling, with an initial fee in the €35-to-€40-million ballpark.

The Dutch center-back, who has yet to debut for the senior national side, comes off a career season in which he played 25 Ligue 1 games, five Champions League matches, and two full Coupe de France and Trophée des Champions outings. He closed the 2021/22 campaign scoring three goals and assisting one more.

Howay the Bot!