Charlton sign French starlet
Alan Pardew is hopeful Yassin Moutaouakil will prove a bargain
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Wednesday, 20, Jun 2007 05:03
France under-21 captain Yassin Moutaouakil has joined Charlton Athletic for £400,000.
The right-back moves to Alan Pardew's side from French club Chateauroux, for whom he has played in the French second division for the last two seasons.
Today's signing is something of a coup for the Championship side as Moutaouakil was thought to be interesting a number of Premiership clubs including Aston Villa and Portsmouth, as well as Italian side Lazio.
The 20-year-old has signed a four-year contract at the Valley and Pardew will hope his arrival will help his side return to the Premiership at the first time of asking after last year's relegation.
"I'm delighted to sign Yassin and we have very high hopes for him," the Charlton boss told the club's official website.
"He's a player that a number of clubs were very interested in and we're naturally very pleased he has chosen Charlton.
"He brings exactly the qualities we are going to need in the Championship next season. He's a very honest player who wants to succeed and he has plenty of hunger."
Going the other way out of south-east London is Bulgarian defender Radostin Kishishev who has left on a free transfer for Leicester City.
The 32-year-old right-back fell out of favour last season but made more than 200 appearances for the club during a seven-year spell.