Liverpool and West Ham United are among the clubs to have seemingly missed out on Basel’s Manuel Akanji.
Conor Washington of Northern Ireland and Manuel Akanji of Switzerland
According to the Daily Mail, Borussia Dortmund are poised to beat a host of Premier League clubs in the race to sign Basel defender Manuel Akanji.
Akanji, 22, joined Basel from Winterthur back in 2015, and he has now become one of the top young players not only in Switzerland, but in the whole of Europe.
The centre back has managed to bag five goals in 41 games for Basel, and he has already grabbed four caps for Switzerland at senior level ahead of what should be a huge World Cup for him.
Now, the Daily Mail report that Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund are poised to sign Akanji in a £20million deal, beating a host of Premier League clubs to his signature.
It’s claimed that Liverpool, Southampton, West Bromwich Albion and West Ham United were all keen to sign Akanji, but Dortmund have swooped in and seemingly landed their man.
Liverpool snapped up Virgil van Dijk earlier this month but had seemingly been open to the idea of bringing in another centre back, whilst Southampton could have lined him up as Van Dijk’s successor.
West Ham are seemingly looking to bring in a young centre back to challenge with the likes of Jose Fonte, Winston Reid and James Collins, and West Brom may lose Jonny Evans this month, with Akanji possibly viewed as a replacement.
However, all four teams will now seemingly have to look elsewhere, as Akanji is heading to Signal Iduna Park to join international teammate Roman Burki as a Dortmund player.
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