Angers Lose Top Prospect Chabot to Manchester City Move

Angers’ summer of goalkeeping frustration is about to take another sharp turn. Max-Edgar Chabot, the club’s highly rated 18-year-old goalkeeper, has rejected his first professional contract with Le SCO and is closing in on a move to Manchester City, according to Le Parisien.

For a club trying to build patiently, it stings.

Angers had already seen Hervé Koffi slip through their fingers. The Burkina Faso international shone on loan from RC Lens last season, only for the deal to collapse once the price climbed beyond their reach. Koffi returned to Lens, Angers were left searching, and the solution came in the form of Anthony Lopes, snapped up as a free agent after the end of his contract at FC Nantes.

That was supposed to bring stability. Instead, another blow.

Le Parisien reports that while nothing has been signed yet, discussions over Chabot’s move to the Premier League champions are advanced, with an agreement potentially wrapped up in the coming days. For Manchester City, it is a familiar play: move early, secure a young talent, and feed an already crowded pipeline of goalkeepers.

For Angers, it is the loss of one of their brightest academy products before he has even had the chance to grow into the senior shirt.

Chabot has been developing with Angers’ U19 side and was part of the France U17 squad at last autumn’s U17 World Cup, a stage that often acts as a shop window for Europe’s elite. City have clearly liked what they have seen.

Angers, meanwhile, must once again reset their plans in the most delicate position on the pitch, watching a homegrown hope trade the Raymond-Kopa Stadium for the Etihad ecosystem. The question now is not whether they can replace Chabot’s potential, but how many more of their prospects they can realistically keep as Europe’s giants continue to circle.