According to L’Equipe, Everton is nearing the completion of a transfer for Stade Rennais defender Ramy Bensebaini. The L’Equipe report states the two clubs are in “very advanced negotiations.”
Bensebaini is primarily a central defender but can also play left-back, where he played primarily for his club last season. The 23-year-old Algerian international made 29 Ligue 1 appearances for Rennais in the 2017/18 campaign, completing the full 90 minutes in all but six of them.
The report from the French news outlet states, as many other English reports have corroborated, that Bensebaini’s transfer will cost Everton in the vicinity of $17.5 million. Bensebaini is under contract with Rennais until 2020, meaning this summer is the time Rennais will get peak value for the Algerian before he reaches the final year of his contract.
Rennais finished a surprising fifth in the Ligue 1 table, helped by Bensebaini as the club allowed just 44 goals over the 38-match season, good for the sixth-best defensive record in the French top flight. He played the full 90 minutes as Rennais gave runaway champions Paris Saint-Germain just their third loss of the season on May 12th in the season’s penultimate match.
Bensebaini has made 12 appearances for the Algerian international team, scoring one goal which came back on June first in a friendly against Cape Verde.
