Two of the more eye-catching pieces of transfer business in Europe this week are edging towards completion, ONE reports: Marc-André ter Stegen's surprise switch to Ajax, and Brentford tearing up their own record books to land a Malian midfielder few outside France had heard of a year ago.
Ter Stegen, still Barcelona's captain on paper, is set to join Ajax on a season-long loan through June 2027, with no option or obligation to buy attached to the deal. At 34, and having lost his place in Hansi Flick's plans, the German international goes in search of regular football again.
The financial mechanics explain why this deal took weeks to untangle. Barcelona, still constrained by La Liga's spending rules, will cover the bulk of ter Stegen's substantial wages — as much as 90 percent, according to reporting cited by ONE — with Ajax picking up no more than 10 percent themselves.
The move has a personal thread running through it: Ajax head coach Míchel worked with ter Stegen during the goalkeeper's loan spell at Girona in 2025-26, and it was the Spaniard who pushed for him at the Johan Cruyff Arena this time round.
Ter Stegen travelled to Amsterdam on Friday, with a medical and formal signature both pencilled in for Saturday. Transfer insider Fabrizio Romano described the deal as "never in doubt." If the paperwork clears before the end of Friday, he would be eligible for Ajax's Conference League qualifying tie; either way, he is expected to be available for the Eredivisie opener away at Zwolle on August 9.
Brentford's business is smaller in profile but bigger in scale for a club that has built its reputation on shrewd, modest recruitment. The Bees have agreed a fee in the region of £41m (roughly €48m) for Mamadou Sangaré, a 24-year-old Malian midfielder at RC Lens — comfortably the largest sum Brentford have ever committed to a single signing.
It eclipses the £36m Brentford paid Bournemouth last summer for winger Dango Ouattara, which had stood as the club's previous benchmark. Sangaré becomes, by some distance, the first Brentford player to command a fee north of £40m.
Sangaré's route to west London has run through Austria and northern France: he was signed from Mali by Red Bull Salzburg as an 18-year-old before a move to Lens, where his form in Ligue 1 is reported to have drawn interest from Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool before Brentford moved decisively.
According to Sports Mole and TeamTalk, the deal has also been framed as a succession plan of sorts, with Brentford anticipating Jordan Henderson's departure for Chelsea and looking to Sangaré to help rebuild the midfield around that gap.
Neither deal was fully signed, sealed and delivered at the time of writing. Personal terms for Sangaré are reported to be agreed, with the transfer expected to be finalised within days once the formalities are completed, while ter Stegen's move still awaits Saturday's medical and signature in Amsterdam.
