West Ham United are leading Tottenham Hotspur in the race for Nikola Milenkovic, according to The Express.
What’s the story?
The Express are reporting this morning that West Ham are in talks with Fiorentina over the transfer of defender Milenkovic.
Fiorentina are now open to selling the Serbia international, and West Ham are keen on the 23-year-old.
Tottenham are interested in Milenkovic as well, but the North London club ‘are currently prioritising a deal for Atalanta’s Cristian Romero’.
Spurs taking a step back has allowed West Ham to get in pole position for the former Partizan star, according to the report.
Just how good is Nikola Milenkovic?
Milenkovic is a very talented and promising defender who is only 23.
The Serbian has been at Fiorentina since 2017 and has established himself as a key figure for the Florence outfit.
The 6ft 5in central defender made 34 appearances in Serie A last season.
Interestingly, Milenkovic scored three goals and gave one assist in those games.
Milenkovic scored five goals in 37 league games in 2019-20, and found the back of the net thrice in Serie A in 2018-19.
The Serbian is a goalscoring central defender who has “incredible potential”, according to comments from former Partizan director Ivica Iliev in Labora Viola in February 2021.
Iliev also said that the defender is so good that he “could easily play at clubs like Manchester United, Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich”.
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