There is a ‘high possibility’ that reported Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur target Dominik Szoboszlai will leave Red Bull Salzburg during the January transfer window, sporting director Christoph Freund told Sky Sports.
The Austrian Bundesliga champions are the masters of signing low and selling high.
Such is their continued dominance of the domestic scene, you would be forgiven for forgetting they cashed in on all three of their star forwards – Takumi Minamino, Hwang Hee Chan and Erling Haaland – before the 2020/21 season kicked off.
So, while Szoboszlai’s seemingly imminent departure will rob Salzburg of the reigning Bundesliga Player of the Year, this is a club who roll with the punches and make replacing star players look like child’s play.
90Min reports that Tottenham, Liverpool, Wolves, Everton and Leicester City are all interested in the Budapest-born set-piece master.
Arsenal, meanwhile, apparently see Szoboszlai – who has been compared to Kai Havertz by German legend Lothar Matthaus – as the man to spark their misfiring front line into life.
“Let’s see what happens in winter, but there is a high probability that he will move to a big club,” Freund said of a Hungary international also linked with Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
“Of course, you would like to keep the player as long as possible. On the other hand, it is also healthy if he takes the next step at the right time.”
After outgrowing the relatively small pond that is Austrian football, the next test is whether Szoboszlai can adapt to a major European league like his former teammate Haaland; a striker who seems to break records by the day at Borussia Dortmund.
The Mirror reports that Szoboszlai has a £23 million release clause in his contract; one Arsenal plan to pay in instalments.
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