Bayern Munich poised to purchase Nicolas Pepé from Lille for €80 mil

According to beIN Sports, Bayern Munich has offered a record-breaking fee of €80 million to sign Nicolas Pepé from Lille OSC. The blockbuster transfer will break Bayern’s previous record set in 2017, when the club paid Lyon a whopping €42 mil for Corentin Tolisso.

Interestingly, beIN also reports that Bayern’s shareholder and jersey provider Adidas is involved in financing the deal.

Pepé has been linked to Bayern for months. Pepé’s own coach, Christoph Galtier, even said in February that he could imagine Pepé playing for “a team in red,” comparing the attacker to Bayern legends Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery.

Just 23 years old, Pepé is the second-leading scorer in France’s Ligue 1: he has 17 goals and 10 assists this season, thus sandwiched between PSG’s Kylian Mbappé (26 goals, 6 assists) and Edinson Cavani (17 goals, 4 assists). Pepé is thus responsible for 60 percent (!) of Lille’s 45 goals-for, lifting his team to second place on the table between PSG and third-placed Lyon. He has played some 2595 for Lille this season, making him one of the hardest working forwards in the league.