Reported West Ham United target Youssef En-Nesyri always wanted to stay at Sevilla despite a the chance to double his wages in the Premier League, the striker’s agent Anass Ouzifi told ABC Sevilla.
If the Morocco international killed off West Ham’s hopes of signing him over the weekend, telling Estadio Deportivo that he was ‘going nowhere’, Ouzifi has just buried the coffin.
En-Nesyri will be sticking around at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan until the summer at least.
Thanks to his impressive form in front of goal, Sevilla are now within touching distance of an inconsistent Real Madrid and pushing once again for Champions League qualification.
“A few days ago a Premier League club called me, an important team,” said Ouzifi.
The agent was reluctant to identify the club in question but, given that David Moyes’ side are the only English-based team to be linked with En Nesyri, we can safely assume it is West Ham he is talking about.
“They asked me what was Youssef’s situation. I told them directly that it didn’t matter, that Youssef didn’t want to leave Sevilla, that he wouldn’t. They insisted,” he added.
“I explained the situation well to them. Youssef is very happy in Seville, very grateful to the club and his teammates; feels the affection of the fans. He is happy. He is 23 years old. Why would you want to leave? Not everything is money in life.
“I only spoke once with Youssef about this issue. I said; ‘Look, Youssef; you have an offer from England. They called me. They want to pay you more than double what you earn at Sevilla and I want to know your opinion’.
“He quickly told me ‘no, no’, to tell them that he was very happy at Sevilla and that he didn’t want to go anywhere.”
According to the Guardian last week, West Ham failed with a £22.5 million bid for En Nesyri and were unwilling to meet Sevilla’s £35 million demands for a striker who only moved to Andalusia 12 months ago after a spell at Leganes.
As it stands, no one has scored more goals in La Liga this season than En-Nesyri (12 in 12 starts, level with Luis Suarez).
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