'One of the best upcoming midfielders' - Nypan to excite Man City fans

Manchester City have agreed a £12.5m fee to sign 18-year-old midfielder Sverre Nypan from Norwegian side Rosenborg - and City fans have every reason to be excited about the potential latest addition.

Teenager Nypan has represented his country at youth levels up to and including under-21s, and it is expected he will go on a season-long loan for the 2025-26 campaign.

Nevertheless, the planned signing of the highly rated Nypan is a sign of City looking to the future.

His arrival would come after the recent June signings of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri, winger Rayan Cherki, midfielder Tijani Reijnders and goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli.

"Sverre Nypan has been regarded as one of the best talents in Norway and been playing at a very high level despite being so young," said Norwegian journalist Andreas Korssund., external

"He's been looked at as the next big thing from the Norwegian league, so it's not a surprise he's securing such a big move. The surprise maybe is he's coming to City at such a young age.

"If you look at the other Norwegian top talents such as Erling Haaland [who went to Red Bull Salzburg and later Borussia Dortmund] and Antonio Nusa [who went to Club Brugge and then RB Leipzig], they went down the other route, going to a club for guaranteed football before looking elsewhere to the Premier League or La Liga."

Followers of Norwegian football have witnessed a rapid rise for Nypan, who made his first-team debut at Rosenborg aged 15.

He has made a big impression in Norway over the past two seasons, winning the top-tier Eliteserien Young Player of the Year award in both 2023 and 2024.

He has largely been used as a central midfielder but can operate as an attacking midfield, winger or in a centre-forward role, too, and is comfortable using either foot, is quick, a good dribbler and able to take on and beat a defender.

In 70 appearances for Rosenborg, he has scored 14 goals and contributed 11 assists.

With him playing in the same position and being from the same country, there have been inevitable comparisons with Arsenal and Norway midfielder Martin Odegaard, who also made his debut in the Norwegian top flight aged 15.

"Both are technically skilled and have good passing abilities," said Korssund. "Odegaard might be more of a dribbler, while Nypan is more someone who controls the game from midfield.

"He is a bit more box-to-box than Odegaard. In my opinion he's definitely going to become one of Europe's absolutely best midfielders."

Nypan played 28 of 30 league matches last year, scoring eight goals to become the club's joint second highest scorer of the campaign, with his first senior hat-trick coming in August during Rosenborg's 4-0 home victory over Lillestrom.

Those goals helped Rosenborg finish fourth and secure a place in Conference League qualifying, after they had missed out on European football last year when finishing eighth in 2023.

Nypan made his debut in a 4-2 away win over Jerv on 6 November 2022, six weeks before his 16th birthday in one of two appearances in that season.

The following year was his breakthrough campaign.

In 2023, he made 17 league starts, plus six substitute appearances, and also featured in three matches in Conference League qualifying.

He played in the 3-2 win over Northern Irish side Crusaders and then impressed during both legs of the third qualifying round tie with Hearts.

Nypan, then only 16, set up a goal in Rosenborg's 2-1 first-leg win, but the Norwegians lost 3-1 at Tynecastle as the Scottish side scraped through 4-3 on aggregate thanks to a last-minute winner from Cameron Devlin.

After that first leg, then Hearts head coach Frankie McAvoy felt Nypan had everything needed to reach the top, saying: "We knew he was a special player and he showed that.

"He also appears to have a good head on his shoulders and when you can do what he does in the final third by creating scoring chances then you have a big opportunity to be successful.

"He has a massive future ahead of him."

It was not long after his emergence before Nypan was catching the eye of Europe's big clubs.

Norway's TV2 reported in August 2023 that scouts from Manchester United had watched Nypan, but Rosenborg boss Alfred Johansson praised the youngster's attitude, stating: "He focuses on enjoying football and training every day.

"It's very impressive, and that's how it should be, but not everyone would have been able to do it. That is strong of Sverre."

Arsenal were interested in the teenager in January 2025 and again this summer, with Aston Villa another one of the sides heavily linked with him, before Pep Guardiola's City had a bid accepted.

The transfer window reopens on Monday when the deal could be completed and it would be a record sale for Rosenborg, beating the £8.5m they received when striker John Carew went to Valencia in 2001.

City are in the United States, with matches in the Club World Cup against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June (17:00 BST), Al Ain of United Arab Emirates on 23 June (02:00 BST) and then Italian side Juventus on 26 June (20:00 BST).

If Guardiola's side make it to the knockout stage, there is a brief window, from 27 June to 3 July, where they can add two players to their squad list for the later stages of the tournament, so Nypan could make his City debut then.

He would become the third Norwegian player at Etihad Stadium, joining up with striker Erling Haaland, 24, and attacking midfielder Oscar Bobb, 21.

Korssund felt it would take Nypan a while to settle in at City, but he predicted he could get to the very top.

"It's a big step for him to go to the Premier League, so he'll need time to adjust before becoming a starter," said Korssund. "But I have no doubt City have secured one of the best upcoming midfielders in the world.

"He's that kind of player we feel is going places. How people talk about him is similar to how Nusa, Odegaard and Haaland have been spoken about, both in the media and by the fans."