According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Man City decided to recruit the British goalkeeper James Trafford from Burnley.
In the Burnley shirt, James Trafford only conceded 16 times, kept the most clean sheet (29 matches) and achieved the highest rescue rate (84.6%) Championship 2024/25. The maturity and great progress of Trafford made Pep Guardiola think again.
James Trafford matures from Man City's training furnace. After 8 years of attachment, once brought to ACCRington Stanley and Bolton Wanderers borrowed and did not have the opportunity to play for the first team, this British goalkeeper joined Burnley in 2023.
At that time, Man City sold James Trafford to Burnley for a fee of £ 14 million. Under the agreement, The Citizens has the right to prioritize the acquisition of the 22 -year -old goalkeeper.
After only 2 years, Man City activated the acquisition of James Trafford. According to The Athletic, the Etihad team must pay Burnley £ 27 million to sign a contract with this goalkeeper.
On the side of James Trafford, the 22 -year -old goalkeeper agreed to return to Man City. He has reached an agreement to sign a 5 -year contract, with an additional 1 year extension option.
The fact that James Trafford returned to Etihad was at the request of coach Pep Guardiola to replace Ederson. Currently, The Citizens is negotiating a Brazilian goalkeeper to Galatasaray.
Thus, James Trafford will become the second goalkeeper that this team recruited in the summer transfer window 2025. Previously, Pep Guardiola's team signed a contract with the reserve goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli from Chelsea.
Calculated, James Trafford is about to become Man City's sixth rookie during the summer transfer window 2025. Besides Marcus Bettinelli (2.4 million euros), Man City also brought back Tijjani Reijnders (55 million euros), Rayan Aït-Nouri (36.8 million euros), Rayan Cherki (36.5 million Euro) and Sverre Nipan (15 million Euro).
In the opposite direction, they broke up with 5 players including Kevin de Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Yan Couto, Maximo Perrone and Scott Carson, earning 38.8 million euros.