Eric Bailly: Five things to know about Jose Mourinho’s first signing as Man United manager
Villarreal defender, 22, has joined the Old Trafford ranks for a cool £30m on a four-year contract, but who is the Ivorian?
MANCHESTER UNITED have confirmed the £30million signing of defender Eric Bailly from La Liga side Villarreal.
The Ivorian, 22, has put pen to paper on a four-year deal to become Jose Mourinho's first signing in his Old Trafford tenure.
But who is Eric Bailly?
SunSport runs down five things you need to know about the former Villarreal man ahead of the 2016-17 season.
1. WHO ARE YA?
BORN in Bingerville in south-east Ivory Coast in April 1994, Bailly has made relatively few senior appearances to date.
He has played 47 times for Villarreal in all competitions since signing for them in January 2015, just after the Yellow Submarine had sold fellow centre-back Gabriel to Arsenal.
He had only had five run-outs for his previous club Espanyol - four starts after making his debut as a substitute in October 2014 - and prior to that he had made a total of 21 appearances for their B team.
2. ATLETIC-OUCH
A STRONG, tall presence at the back, Bailly made a notable error towards the end of his first season with Villarreal.
He gave away possession just inside his own half in a home match against Atletico Madrid in April 2016.
Fernando Torres pounced, collecting the ball and bursting forward to score what proved to be the winning goal.
The clip of the video did the rounds on social media over the weekend.
3. RED DEVIL
THE former Villarreal man has picked up plenty of bookings in his career to date.
In only his fifth appearance for the Spanish side he was sent off having been shown two yellow cards, and he was booked four more times between then and the end of that season.
In 2015-16, he was yellow-carded 14 times, with two in a game in October amounting to another red.
Fortunately for Mourinho and Co, the fact that the last of those was on March 2 suggests he is cleaning up his act.
4. VILLAR-REALLY SUCCESSFUL
BAILLY also enjoyed considerable success last season, becoming a key player for Villarreal as they secured a fourth-placed finish in La Liga.
They also reached the Europa League semi-finals - eventually knocked out by Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool.
He played in the last-four first leg against the Reds as his side won 1-0, and was then missing with an injury when they were beaten 3-0 in the reverse fixture at Anfield.
5. COUNTRY FILE
IVORIAN defender Bailly has made a fine impact at international level as well.
He made his Ivory Coast debut in a friendly against Nigeria in January 2015 - and the following month, having featured in every match of the campaign, scored in the penalty shoot-out as the Elephants beat Ghana in the African Nations Cup final.