{"id":740826,"date":"2026-08-17T13:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/740826\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:12:11","slug":"ipswich-town-to-pay-almost-50m-for-julio-enciso-and-abdoul-ouattara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/740826\/","title":{"rendered":"Ipswich Town to pay almost \u00a350m for Julio Enciso and Abdoul Ouattara"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The EADT and Ipswich Star understands that the Blues haven&#8217;t broken their transfer record to sign 22-year-old Paraguayan star Enciso, with the total package of \u20ac30.5m (\u00a326m) not quite eclipsing the \u20ac28m + \u20ac3m (\u00a326.5m total) paid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eadt.co.uk\/sport\/26262443.ipswich-town-sign-emersonn-toulouse-club-record-fee\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to bring in Brazilian striker Emersonn<\/a> from Toulouse earlier this summer.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Meanwhile, the fee paid for Ouattara, an ultra versatile 20-year-old from the Ivory Coast, is understood to be around \u20ac20m (\u00a317m) + a potential further \u20ac5m (\u00a34.3m) in add-ons, meaning that deal could reach \u00a321.3m.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The pair reunite with manager Gary O&#8217;Neil at Portman Road having worked with him at Strasbourg in the second half of last season. Both will sign five-year contracts.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Enciso returns to Suffolk having scored two goals in 13 appearances during a loan spell from Brighton in the second half of the 2024\/25 Premier League relegation campaign. His long-range strike at Everton was a memorable moment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A versatile attacker who can play as a No.10 or inside forward, he&#8217;s already been capped 37 times by Paraguay and scored against Germany during this summer&#8217;s World Cup.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Ouattara played a mixture of right-back, right wing-back, left-back and central midfield for Strasbourg last season, featuring prominently in their run to the UEFA Conference League semi-finals.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Due to his age, he won&#8217;t count towards Ipswich&#8217;s 25-man senior squad limit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The duo will become Town&#8217;s 11th and 12th signings of the summer and take the total transfer window spend so far above \u00a3150m.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A striker and defender are understood to still be on the Blues&#8217; shopping list, with chairman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kingsofanglia.com\/interviews\/26457754.ipswich-town---mark-ashton-global-transfers-use-data\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Ashton having told the EADT and Ipswich Star<\/a> the club&#8217;s owners have urged him to push &#8216;right to the limits&#8217; of financial fair play rules.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Ipswich host Sunderland in their Premier League opener on Saturday, with the transfer window closing at 11pm on Tuesday, September 1.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  TOWN SIGNINGS SUMMER 2026\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 1: Cedric Kipre (Reims, \u00a32.1m, loan made permanent)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 1: Chuba Akpom (Ajax, \u00a37m, loan made permanent)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 8: Emersonn (Toulouse, \u00a324m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 21: Kayden van Oevelen (FC Volendam, \u00a33.4m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 21: Abdul Fatawu (Leicester, \u00a320m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 22: Issa Diop (Fulham, \u00a38.5m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 25: Daizen Maeda (Celtic, \u00a38m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  July 28: Kjell Scherpen (Union Saint-Gilloise, \u00a38.5m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Aug 4: Florentino Luis (Burnley, \u00a316m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Aug 7: Sasa Lukic (Fulham, \u00a39m)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Total spend: \u00a3106.5m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EADT and Ipswich Star understands that the Blues haven&#8217;t broken their transfer record to sign 22-year-old Paraguayan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-740826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}