So West Ham United will not be signing the most prolific chance-creator in the Bundesliga. Well, the most prolific chance-creator not called Thomas Muller, anyway.
Filip Kostic, after receiving a £15 million bid from the Hammers, is on the verge of joining Serie A giants Juventus instead. He’s been left out of the Eintracht Frankfurt squad for Wednesday’s UEFA Super Cup clash with Real Madrid with a departure imminent.
But David Moyes could still get his mitts on the next best thing.
According to Croatian publication Index, Borna Sosa is ‘very close’ to sealing a move to the Premier League during the final month of the window. West Ham are leading Newcastle in the chase for Stuttgart’s £17 million-rated left-back, with Sosa’s agent in England to rubber stamp an agreement.
And there is one player currently wearing claret-and-blue who will be licking his lips and rubbing his hands at the prospect of Sosa’s sudden arrival.
Gianluca Scamacca and Borna Sosa; A match made in West Ham heaven?
In Gianluca Scamacca, West Ham have a 6ft 5ins centre-forward who thrives on service. Nine of his 16 Serie A goals in 2021/22 came via deliveries from wide areas. And, in Sosa, The Hammers may be about to sign one of the most accurate crossers of a ball anywhere on the continent.
The Beckham of the Balkans, if you will.
“Borna’s said himself that David Beckham is his role model,” Stuttgart director Sven Mislintat told BILD in 2021. “And I think he has the same qualities.
“He puts in crosses from every angle: Sometimes chipped, sometimes drilled, sometimes flat, sometimes in behind, sometimes to the front post, other times to the back post. His left-foot is a real weapon.”
Think of Sosa as something of a turbo-charged Aaron Cresswell. A full-back capable of landing a cross on a sixpence from almost any position on the left. The 24-year-old is a massive threat, either from open play or from set-pieces.
And that free-scoring ‘Sosa-Sasa’ partnership with Stuttgart’s 6ft 7ins striker Sasa Kalajdzic suggests a similarly fearsome understanding could be struck up with Scamacca in the English capital.
Kalajdzic has scored 23 goals in the last two Bundesliga seasons. Sosa set up no fewer than nine of them.
“We have a really good connection,” Sosa tells the Bundesliga’s official website. “I feel really comfortable playing with. “For a striker, (Kalajdzic) has really good movement and finishing.”
You could say the same about West Ham’s new number seven. The Sosa-Sasa partnership took the Bundesliga by storm. And the Sosa-Scamacca partnership could be equally fruitful this side of the Channel.
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