(Football news) West Ham have had a bid worth £33.5m accepted by Lille for their 20 year midfielder Amadou Onana. David Moyes has been looking to add more depth in the midfield after Mark Noble retired and Alex Kral returned to Spartak Moscow at the end of an unsuccessful loan. Moyes signed 23-year-old midfielder Flynn Downes from Swansea last month to add further depth in the middle of the park. West Ham are also close to agreeing a deal to sign the Burnley forward Maxwel Cornet after having an offer of about £17m rejected.
West Ham have been tracking Onana all summer and are set to discuss personal terms with the 20-year-old. Lille have been holding out for about €40m for the Belgian this transfer window and West Ham have agreed to pay an initial €35m (£29.3m) plus €5m in add-ons. The Hammers have been busy this summer, having already signed Nayef Aguerd, Gianluca Scamacca and Alphonse Areola. West Ham are also on a look for a left-back, with Leicester’s Luke Thomas in their sights, and are also monitoring one more forward in Blackburn forward Ben Brereton Díaz who is another target. They have already loaned out Arthur Masuaku to Besiktas and French centre-back Issa Diop is a target for Fulham.
The East London remain in discussion with Burnley over the signing of Ivory Coast forward Maxwel Cornet as they are proposing an initial loan deal with an option to make the deal permanent based on certain player and club performances. West Ham on the other hand have not given up on signing Filip Kostic from Eintracht Frankfurt but are focusing on other deals also. West Ham's bid worth £12.6m including add-ons was rejected, with Frankfurt looking for somewhere around £16.8m ( for a player who has entered the final year of his contract. Kostic is represented by World Soccer Agency (WSA) which was subsequently the same agency that looks after Gianluca Scamacca.
Onana was born in Dakar and was capped for Sengal at youth levels before he decided to change nationality and made his senior Belgium debut in a 4-1 Nations League defeat to the Netherlands in June. The 6ft 5 prodigy began his youth career at Belgian clubs Anderlecht, RWS Bruxelles and Zulte Waregem before spending three seasons with the Hoffenheim academy. Onana then went on to sign for Hamburg before the 2020-21 season and swiftly established himself as a first-team regular for the German second-tier side.He then made his big move to the French champions Lille in August 2021. Onana made 31 appearances in Ligue 1 last season and featured in all of the club's Champions League matches.
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