Manchester City have completed the £62.5m signing of Antoine Semenyo and Hugo Viana will be delighted to have secured the deal
Antoine Semenyo and Hugo Viana signs for Manchester City at Manchester City Academy on January 08, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Manchester City FC)
Antoine Semenyo with Hugo Viana
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As weird as it sounds, Manchester City went to sign Antoine Semenyo from a position of strength. After standards fell last season, the rebuild had been strong enough that the Blues entered December feeling like they could challenge for all competitions.
That may still be the case, but it has been a wretched start to 2026 with significant injuries to another three players and six dropped points to go along with it. Whether Semenyo is given his debut in the FA Cup this weekend or in the Carabao Cup at Newcastle on Tuesday, he will not be able to feature in City's strongest XI for months.
If that cannot be helped, what could have made a difference was bringing Semenyo earlier in January. It felt particularly galling for City that the 26-year-old was scoring a last-minute winner for Bournemouth on Wednesday while the Blues were grinding out their third successive draw to leave Pep Guardiola complaining about how their poor finishing has cost them.
That was part of the deal that Hugo Viana orchestrated that will mean City get the player on more favourable terms. While a £65m release clause was what alerted City, Liverpool, United and others in the first place for January, having won the race Viana instead got a £62.5m deal that is better for City's books as it spreads the payments out more than the release clause would have done; in the short-term it proved annoying not to have Semenyo earlier, but that risk was done for long-term gain and at least did not see the player get injured.
Guardiola in particular does not like the January window, but he has been more open to the club being active in it since the 2025 decisions salvaged their season, and as December hit with the team in a good place Viana was alive to stepping up City's interest to secure a player for the future. The attacker, who counts as homegrown for Premier League and Champions League purposes even if not club-trained, has been signed to bolster this season but also for the future.
Despite the competition for his signature, City were confident for a long time with Semenyo and Viana is delighted to have got the deal over the line - not least because of some last-minute chatter from pundit Jamie Redknapp late on Wednesday night that suggested Liverpool were hijacking the move.
“Antoine is a really exciting signing for the football club. He made it clear to us immediately that it was City he wanted to join. His enthusiasm for this football club has been clear throughout this process," said Viana.
“We are constantly watching players all over the world. Antoine was the one we most wanted. He has shown he can perform in the Premier League. He is humble, hard-working, professional and totally focused on being a better footballer. He is ideal for us.”
Semenyo was earmarked as an upgrade for Oscar Bobb, who has struggled to find top form again after his leg fracture at the beginning of last season. Savinho being out for at least six weeks provides more routes to minutes though, as does Omar Marmoush currently being at the Africa Cup of Nations, and the Ghana international will relish working with Erling Haaland after being so effusive in his praise for the striker earlier this season.
"Haaland is number one," he told Earn Your Stripes. "You see it on TV that he's scoring all these goals and think surely he's not like this in person...that man is tall. My goodness. Tall, strong, fast, can finish. He's got everything you need as as striker. I remember Man City are bopping and they bop it anyway and then Ruben Dias just wraps the ball to him and it's so high and I thought how is he going to deal with this and then he just took it on his chest. I'm thinking ' Hmm - Haaland the man'.
"The aura he has, when he's on the pitch if you don't mark him he's going to score. Everyone is trying to mark him and even when you mark him he still scores. I remember watching him and thinking this is the kind of striker I want to be."
As Semenyo looks up to Haaland, he will take the shirt number of another City great in the No.42 that Yaya Toure wore. If there are any links to the former star midfielder, Semenyo's reasons for the number are more simple: it is the one he got when he signed his first professional deal at Bristol City.
Viana and City will hope that he can help the team to start making things look simple again with immediate effect.