Ali Akman could see his Premier League dream come true as West Ham United reportedly express an interest in the Bursaspor forward.
West Ham United have opened talks over a deal to sign Bursaspor striker Ali Akman, according to Aksam, after the youngster admitted that moving to the Premier League was his ‘biggest dream’.
We are entering something of a golden generation of young Turkish footballers.
Finishing a close second behind France as they cruised into Euro 2020, Fatih Terim’s side have moved away from the over-the-hill veterans towards a crop of exciting, ever-improving talents.
Zeki Celik, Ozan Tufan and Dorukhan Tokoz are all under the age of 24 and, in Caglar Soyuncu and Merih Demiral, Turkey have two of Europe’s brightest young centre-halves in their ranks too.
Now, Akman has a long way to go before he establishes himself in the national team but he is already turning heads after an impressive breakthrough season in the Turkish second tier.
According to Aksam, Bursaspor’s president Selcuk Erdogan has held a face-to-face meeting with West Ham scout Thomas Hengen with negotiations progressing well as it stands.
And Akman, who has scored four times in 11 games this season, has already admitted that he would jump at the chance to join Soyuncu, Cenk Tosun and co on English shores. This should be music to the ears of West Ham.
“The best league in the world is Premier League. Like Cenk, my biggest dream is to play in the Premier League,” a striker who is almost fluent in English told IHA just a few hours before those links with West Ham emerged.
Akman is probably a little too young right now to seriously challenge Sebastien Haller for a place in West Ham’s starting XI but, with Albian Ajeti enduring a miserable debut season at the London Stadium, there’s certainly room for another striker in David Moyes’ squad.
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