Watford FC have reached an agreement to sign Bayern Munich youngster Nestory Irankunda for an initial fee of around £3.5 million, as per Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano.
The Australian youngster broke the A-League transfer record when moving to Bayern and is also the fastest player in the history of Adelaide United.
Romano reports that the Bavarian giants have inserted a 50% sell-on clause and a buyback clause in the deal which will see Irankunda move to Vicarage Road.
Who Is Nestory Irankunda?
Irankunda has been labelled as one of the most talented players to ever come out of Australian football.
He made his debut in the A-League for Adelaide United when he was just 15 years of age, becoming the sixth-youngest player to ever play in Australia’s top flight.
The versatile attacker made 11 appearances during the 2021/22 season, scoring an impressive three goals in the process.
Throughout the 21/22 and 2022/23 seasons, Irankunda was carefully managed by Adelaide United boss Carl Veart, who only ever used the winger off the bench.
In the 22/23 season, the Tanzania-born man managed to record five goals and two assists from 19 substitute appearances, scoring three times in consecutive appearances from the bench in February and March 2023. However, the campaign also saw Irankunda get criticised for a couple of disciplinary problems.
Veart finally deemed the winger ready to start games in the following season, and Irankunda thrived. He scored eight goals and provided six assists for his teammates in 25 A-League games, including a hat-trick against Western Sydney Wanderers which saw him become the youngest player in A-League history to earn a match ball.
He was jointly named A-League Young Player of the Season and included in the A-League Men All-Stars squad at the end of the 2023/24 season.
Following his move to Bayern, the pacy attacker went on the first team’s preseason tour to South Korea and was even named on the bench for their opening DFB Pokal fixture before spending the rest of the calendar year with the Bavarians’ second team, where he scored four times in 15 games.
In January, Irankunda moved to Swiss outfit Grasshopper Zurich. He was named as the club’s player of the month for February and ended his six-month stint with one goal and three assists in the Swiss top tier.
Writer’s View
Irankunda is an extremely exciting young player and the signing could prove to be a real coup for Watford if they give him the right platform to succeed. It is important that Paulo Pezzolano and co. create the right environment which will lead to Irankunda staying disciplined and using his talent for the good of the team as a whole.
The winger is vastly experienced despite his youth, having played nearly 100 games in club football in addition to the five games that he has played for Australia, he is extraordinarily fast, only one player in the Premier League recorded a faster sprint speed last season than he did for Adelaide United, and he has excellent end product for someone so young and raw.
The terms of the deal are not ideal for the Hornets, as Bayern are set to benefit from Irankunda’s potential success at Vicarage Road as much as Watford are due to the buyback clause and hefty sell-on clause involved with the transfer.
