West Ham United ready to pay £34million-plus fee for Hugo Ekitike transfer as striker agrees to deal
West Ham are ready to pay €40million [£34.2m] to sign Hugo Ekitike but Paris Saint-Germain has “blocked” the deal, according to Sports Zone.
The online outlet reported via Twitter Thursday evening (31 August) that the Hammers already have agreement from the young French striker but his club don’t want to sell because they want to do a deal with Eintracht Frankfurt instead in order to land Randal Kolo Muani.
West Ham want a striker before the deadline and had sent Tim Steidten out to Brazil to negotiate in person for Yuri Alberto from Corinthians.
But the technical director has returned to London “empty handed”, with his next destination has been tipped to be Paris as the Irons “really like” 21-year-old Ekitike, according to the Daily Mail’s Kieran Gill on Thursday.
L’Equipe had reported on 21 August that a purchase option on a loan-to-buy deal would need to be worth €35m [£30m], so it would appear the club have met the asking price and more.
Frustration
If West Ham are ready to put that much money on the table it is obvious that they rate the young goal scorer highly, and if he is on board with a switch to the London Stadium then the general expectation would be for a deal to get done.
But if PSG are intent on getting Kolo Muani in and Frankfurt have a rival interest in Ekitike then they may be left waiting at the back of the queue.
In theory the power is in the hands of the player himself as he could refuse to move to the Bundesliga side should he prefer West Ham above all, then the French champions would be left to take the Irons bid or keep him.
But if Eintracht are an equally acceptable choice for the former Reims forward then there might be nothing that Steidten can do about it.
The German did great work convincing Ajax and Mohammed Kudus that his future lay in east London, but he wasn’t able to recreate that on his trip to Brazil.
So Youssef En-Nesyri may be the last best chance for West Ham to land a forward in the time left before the deadline if they have been shut out of the Ekitike stakes, unless the technical director can work some late magic.
In other West Ham news, a key Irons star has failed to agree exit terms amid multiple offers to leave.