Manchester City have confirmed the return of goalkeeper James Trafford, bringing back the former academy product from Burnley. Trafford was initially sold in 2023, with a \u00a340 million buy-back clause included in his sale. However, City negotiated a deal below that figure, reportedly lower than a \u00a327 million offer from Newcastle. The goalkeeper has committed to a five-year contract, extending his stay at Manchester City through to June 2030.<\/p>\n
During his time at Burnley, Trafford was instrumental under the management of former City player Vincent Kompany. He recorded 29 clean sheets in 45 Championship appearances, playing a key role in Burnley’s promotion back to the Premier League. Notably, he set a Championship record by keeping 12 consecutive clean sheets.<\/p>\n
In his first interview since re-signing, Trafford expressed deep affection for the club: “Rejoining City is such special and proud moment both for me and my family. I always dreamed that one day I would be able to come back to Manchester City. This is the place I call home. It\u2019s a truly special football club with fantastic people who make it such a unique place to work and play.”<\/p>\n
Hugo Viana, Manchester City’s director of football, praised Trafford’s qualities, stating, “James is already one of the most accomplished young goalkeepers in the English game, and we are delighted to welcome him back to Manchester City. He has all the attributes a top-class goalkeeper requires. We feel he is an ideal fit for this squad and will bring great quality to the goalkeeping department. We fully believe he will be really successful and a top goalkeeper for Manchester City and the national team.”<\/p>\n
Trafford\u2019s arrival raises questions about the futures of Ederson and Stefan Ortega at the club. Ederson, a key figure through City’s recent successes including their treble-winning season, was linked with a move to Galatasaray, but talks have reportedly stalled. Ortega briefly displaced Ederson last season but did not maintain the starting position.<\/p>\n
This summer, Manchester City has also signed goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli from Chelsea, in addition to outfield players Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki, and Rayan A\u00eft-Nouri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester City confirm goalkeeper James Trafford’s return from Burnley on a five-year deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[237,182],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-james-trafford","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}