Manchester City have announced the signing of defender Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens for a reported €40m (£33.5m).
The 20-year-old has put pen to paper on a four-and-a-half-year contract and becomes Pep Guardiola's first signing of the January transfer window.
Khusanov, who arrived in Manchester at the end of last week before completing his medical, will wear the No.45 shirt at City, and the youngster leaves Lens after making 31 senior appearances for the Ligue 1 side over an 18-month period.
"I'm absolutely delighted to be joining Manchester City, a club that I have enjoyed watching for a long time," Khusanov told the club's official website.
"This squad is full of the best players in the world, and I can't wait to meet them and play alongside them.
"And of course Pep Guardiola is one of the greatest coaches ever and I am so excited to learn from him and improve my game even more.
"This is a very proud moment for me and my family to be joining a great club like Manchester City and I'm more than ready for this challenge."
Welcome, Abdukodir 👋 pic.twitter.com/Y6X88GB79O
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 20, 2025
Khusanov: 'Joining Man City a very proud moment for me and my family'
Director of Football Txiki Begiristain added: "We are very happy that he has joined us, and we are all very excited about what he will bring," Begiristain said.
"For such a young defender, Abdukodir is already very intelligent, as well as being strong, aggressive and extremely quick.
"Working with Pep will only make him better and, speaking to him, he is determined to keep improving.
"He is a really exciting signing as we aim to keep progressing to maintain one of the best squads in Europe."
Now that Khusanov has joined Man City, he could become the first Uzbekistan player to feature in the Premier League and subsequently join an exclusive club.
Indeed, there are currently 18 nations who have provided just one Premier League player and 18-cap Uzbekistan international Khusanov could soon become the 19th player on the list, joining:
Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Armenia), Hamza Choudhury (Bangladesh), Frederic Nimani (Central African Republic), Onel Hernandez (Cuba), Junior Firpo (Dominican Republic), Gunnar Nielsen (Faroe Islands), Danny Higginbotham (Gibraltar), Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (Guatemala), Jordi Amat (Indonesia), Ali Al-Hamadi (Iraq), Victor Wanyama (Kenya), Dylan Kerr (Malta), Ali Al-Habsi (Oman), Zesh Rehman (Pakistan), Neil Etheridge (Philippines), Ryan Donk (Suriname), Mahmoud Dahoud (Syria) and Mbwana Samatta (Tanzania).
"This is not just for me but also for Uzbekistan," Khusanov added. "The first Uzbek in the Premier League but I'm sure that this is only the beginning.
"More Uzbek players will come and play in the Premier League. There is growing interest in football in Uzbekistan. For this reason, everybody there wants to qualify for the World Cup, we are just one stop away from qualifying."
A new blue ✊ pic.twitter.com/ETxWr0WuPm
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 20, 2025
'Khusanov is a tank' - What will he bring to Man City?
After beginning his career with Belarusian outfit Energetik-BGU, Khusanov was snapped up by Lens for just €100,000 (£84,500) in the summer of 2023 and developed into one of the most promising young players in the French top flight.
Standing 6ft 1in tall, Khusanov is a powerful, aggressive and lightning quick centre-back, who clocked a remarkable top speed of 37km/h (22.9mph) earlier this season - legendary Olympic champion Usain Bolt averaged 37.58km/h when he set the 100m world record of 9.58 seconds in 2009.
In September last year, Lens head coach Will Still heaped praise on Khusanov, telling reporters: "He has very, very impressive potential... Kodir is a tank. He's impressive physically and athletically."
Not only does he boast an 89% passing accuracy for Lens this season, he was ranked second for interceptions (26) of all Ligue 1 defenders after making his final appearance in the division last month; he is still currently ranked in the top eight even though he has missed Lens' last three Ligue 1 games.
Khusanov joins a Man City side that have been troubled by a defensive injury crisis this season, one of several issues that contributed to the club's dismal - by their standards - run of form at the end of last year.
Ruben Dias, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake have all suffered with injuries this season, and Man City were without at least one of their four centre-back options during their torrid run of just two victories in their final 14 matches of 2024 across all tournaments.
Man City's eight different centre-back pairings is the fifth most in the Premier League this season after 21 matches, while their most-common partnership - Akanji and Dias - have only started together on six occasions, including their most recent outing against Ipswich Town last weekend.
Khusanov will not be eligible to make his Man City debut on Wednesday when Guardiola's side travel to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, but he could feature for the first time in Sky Blue when the Citizens play host to Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday.
Oliver Thomas
