One of the biggest transfers of this week has been Malcom moving from Bordeaux to Barcelona. The day before the blaugrana announced the move as official, AS Roma had announced they’d agreed terms with the French side, and Malcom was supposed to be joining them.
But Roma, much to their anger, were gazumped at the last minute.
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf report the same nearly happened to Brighton & Hove Albion this week. Having agreed a fee to sign Alireza Jahanbakhsh from Dutch club AZ, everything looked to be sailing towards a simple transfer.
Then Leicester City arrived.
De Telegraaf states Leicester made an ‘even higher’ offer than Brighton’s €25m in an attempt to snatch the player away from the Seagulls. This was all ‘at the last moment’ but Jahanbaksh wanted to go to Brighton ‘at any cost’.
The Dutch newspaper also quoted the player’s agent as confirming the Leicester approach and that his client was made aware.
Amir Hashemi explained: “Of course we told Alireza that Leicester City was also an option, but the feeling at Brighton was so good for all of us. Brighton has been following Alireza for three and a half years and informed us almost weekly.”
The agent added that his client has chosen “200% with his heart”.
