West Ham United’s budget has been boosted after selling Declan Rice to Arsenal for a record fee and they’re in the market for a replacement for their former star.
Denis Zakaria is one of their targets and Gazzetta dello Sport stated the Hammers have been in talks with Juventus for weeks over a deal for the midfielder.
West Ham are joined by RB Leipzig in the race to sign the 26-year-old. That’s according to TuttoMercatoWeb, who say it’s a ‘head-to-head’ battle between the two clubs.
Both David Moyes’ side and the German club are said to be ‘moving concretely’ to sign the player, who’s been left out of Massimiliano Allegri’s plans for the new season.
That was the same case during the last campaign, hence the loan move to Chelsea.
The report states the player is now ‘close to leaving’ Juve on a loan deal with an obligation to buy. The Turin club’s leaders are aiming to collect around €20m plus bonuses.
Even though there’s still ‘work to do’, TMW explain that there could be ‘white smoke soon’ for Zakaria to leave the Old Lady. They don’t mention who among West Ham and Leipzig would win this battle.
