Manchester City have agreed a deal to sign the Rochdale forward Kwadwo Baah at the end of the season.
Baah, who turned 18 last week, has excelled for Brian Barry-Murphy’s side in League One this season having scored three times and attracted interest from Rangers, among others.
Having turned down the opportunity to sign for City’s academy when he was 16, the former Crystal Palace youth player will now join Pep Guardiola’s squad when his Rochdale contract expires in the summer after an agreement was reached on Monday.
It is understood Baah will sign a pre-contract agreement with City that will involve him seeing out the season at Rochdale before making the move, with the League One club also set to receive a fee. He is expected to be loaned out next season, most likely to a Championship club.
Baah enjoyed a brief taste of fame in October 2016 as a Palace ballboy when he ran on to the pitch and put down the ball for a goal-kick in an attempt to stop West Ham’s goalkeeper from time-wasting. He was released by Palace at the age of 14 but was given a second opportunity by the Kinetic Academy in south London, who helped Baah to sign a scholarship at Rochdale in September 2019.
“Rochdale have made me realise that I have to grow up and my behaviour has improved,” he told the Guardian last month in his first newspaper interview.
“I’ve matured a lot and I don’t do the stuff that I used to do when I was young. I’m around the senior players and you have to be professional. It’s had a massive impact on me growing up. One day I could end up in the Premier League, you never know.”