AFC Wimbledon could sell Ali Al-Hamadi for just £1.5 million with Leeds United and Sunderland among the Championship clubs keen on the League Two star.
You’ll forgive us if we are not exactly surprised to see Peterborough United step on the gas and charge forward in pursuit of this lower league whizzkid.
Darren Ferguson’s Posh are famed for plucking talented youngsters from further down the pyramid, polishing these rough diamonds before sending them to auction. And with TEAMtalk reporting that Peterborough are currently showing the most interest in Ali Al-Hamadi, the Wimbledon wizard could yet follow the path carved out by Dwight Gayle, Jack Marriott and Ephron Mason-Clarke.
Leeds and Sunderland in Ali Al-Hamadi race
Wimbledon hope to bring in a club-record fee of £1.5 million for Al-Hamadi.
A price which should have the 21-year-old’s array of other suitors doing their level best to ensure that Peterborough do not have a clear run at League Two’s star performer. According to TEAMtalk, there is also interest from Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland in the Iraq international.
“He can go all the way,” Dons coach Johnnie Jackson tells London News Online of Al-Hamadi, who has 13 goals and six assists this season already. “He’s a top player and at this level. He’s a shining light (and) he’s adding goals now.
“At the start of the season, he wasn’t scoring. We knew that (the goals) would come because of the way that he plays and the way he goes about it.
“Top lad, and I love working with him.”
Sunderland beat Leeds United on Wearside
Two of Al-Hamadi’s suitors, Sunderland and Leeds, went head to head on Tuesday night, the former triumping thanks to a winner from 17-year-old Jobe Bellingham. The sight of Bellingham leading the line, however, served to expose the lack of centre-forward options at the Black Cats disposal, the former Birmingham teen a midfielder by trade.
Leeds, meanwhile, have relied upon the goals of wingers Crysencio Summerville and Dan James recently with Joel Piroe arguably better as a number ten and Patrick Bamford no longer the fox-in-the-box force of old.
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