Mamelodi Sundowns have reignited their interest in Morocco defender Abdelmounaim Boutouil, who’s currently on loan at Raja Atheltic Club.
Sundowns were previously in talks with the SCC Mohammédia centre-back after an impressive showing with the national team as they won the 2020 African Nations Championship in Cameroon.
At the time Boutouil had just returned to Morocco after an ill-fated stint in Belgium with Royale Union Saint-Gilloise where he left before playing a game due to the global outbreak of Covid-19.
The FAR Rabat academy product then returned to the Botola with SCC Mohammedia, first on loan, before sealing a permanent switch where he reaffirmed his status as one of the finest defenders in North Africa with a string of outstanding performances.
Sundowns then made contact with the club and his representatives where Mohammedia were seeking around €750,000 and the player himself was not open to the idea of moving to South Africa after his experience in Belgium just months prior.
Raja Atheltic Club then snapped him up on loan for the 2021/22 season and after starting 10 of the first 12 games, he fell out of favour with the head coach Rachid Taoussi – who was sacked on Thursday – and did not feature in the first team since.
iDiski Times have been informed that Sundowns have made contact with the player once more to find out what happened at Raja and what happened during his time at Royal Union and unlike the first attempt to land him Boutouil is open to the idea of making the switch to South Africa now.
Added to his interest in joining Masandawana, the asking price from Mohammedia is likely to be less than half with Raja unlikely to activate their option to buy after not featuring in the second half of the season and now only having two years remaining on his current deal.
However, it’s still early stages of negotiations with Sundowns yet to make an official offer to the club or the player ahead of their start of the 2022/23 pre-season preperatons.
Boutouil is one of two left centre-backs the club are monitoring while the club is also in talks the Themba Zwane and Gaston Sirino over new contracts, however, it’s understood that the latter could depart to seek a new challenge elsewhere.
