(Football news) Fulham are close to signing Roma forward Justin Kluivert, who wants to join the newly-promoted club. The 23-year-old winger rejected interest from French sides Marseille and Nice to play in the Premier League. Kluivert is the son of legendary Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert and was a key target for Fulham manager Marco Silva, who has been negotiating directly with Roma’s director of football Tiago Pinto. Fulham’s latest offer is for a loan with an obligation to buy for £10million next summer.

Fulham have made several enquiries to sign forwards including the likes of Brighton's Neal Maupay, Marseille's Bamba Dieng, Bayern Munich's Joshua Zirkzee and Bordeaux's Ui-jo Hwang. Maupay is set to sign for Nottingham Forest while Fulham saw an approach for former striker Moussa Dembele rejected. After Manor Solomon, joined from Shakhtar Donetsk earlier this summer he since then has sustained a major knee injury during a friendly. Marco Silva is eager to improve his offensive option as Harry Wilson is also out and may struggle to be ready for the World Cup in November.

Since his move from Ajax to Roma in 2018, Kluivert has struggled with his form. He did not play for the Italian side since the start of the 2020–21 campaign and has scored just six goals in 31 games while on loan at Nice the previous season. In the Champions League, he scored against Manchester United while playing for RB Leipzig when he was on loan as he suffered a difficult period in the Bundesliga. In the Premier League, Fulham has had a good start to the campaign after they held Liverpool to a 2-2 draw on the opening day and followed it up with a 0-0 against Wolves. They should have won that game also but Aleksandr Mitrovic’s late penalty was saved by Jose Sa.

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