While they were linked with a few players over the January transfer window, Southampton didn’t sign anyone, and promoted Yan Valery to the first team just before it was clear Cédric Soares wasn’t part of the first-team going forward.
It seems the young Frenchman wasn’t meant to get the job full-time, however, as it was revealed the Saints made a late attempt to sign KRC Genk defender Joakim Maehle.
Seeing a €12m offer rejected by the Belgian side, Ralph Hasenhuttl will have to fall back on the Valery option for the rest of the campaign, but a return in the summer could be on the cards after Walfoot suggested a similar offer in June could be too hard to turn down.
The 21-year-old is currently in his second season with Genk, and his performances have helped his side storm their way to a large lead at the top of the Jupiler Pro League, much to the pride of his hometown, Ostervra.
Speaking to Sport/Foot, the Southampton target revealed what life was like when he returned home: “I’m the first from the town to have made it as a professional abroad. People ask me for selfies regularly. People are proud that we’re talking of their town. At the local football club’s bar, there’s two shirts: one from Aalborg and the other from Genk. My two brothers still play there.”
Describing Ostervra as a ‘small town where just over a thousand people live’, Maehle pretty much lived next to a football stadium, and with a father who managed the youth teams and a grandfather who played in the Danish second division as a goalkeeper, he was never going to escape the sport.
As for who he thinks is the best Danish player of all time, well that’s easy: Michael Laudrup.
He says: “He was both quick and technical, but what really impressed me was his passes. His vision! Sometimes, he just gave the ball without even looking.”
