According to reports from Gazzetta dello Sport, summarised in English by Sport Witness, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United transfer target Andrea Belotti is set to agree a new contract with an £80million release clause.
Who?
Andrea Belotti may not be a household name in England just yet but he’s causing quite the stir over in Serie A. He bagged an impressive twelve goals for Torino last season and has begun the new campaign with ten in as many league starts – alongside three assists. In fact, he’s the Italian top flight’s joint-leading goalscorer alongside Edin Dzeko and Mauro Icardi – two far more experienced strikers spearheading the attacks in theoretically stronger teams. Whoscored.com actually rate Belotti as the third-top performer in Serie A this season, as shown below.
The 22-year-old’s international career has got off to a flyer as well, with three goals in five appearances since making his senior debut for Italy in September – albeit coming against rather modest opposition in Macedonia and Liechtenstein.
Who’s interested?
Due to his fine flow of form and the inevitable cost of signing ready-made world-class strikers in the current transfer market, pretty much every major Premier League club has been linked with Belotti in recent months.
Indeed, back in October, CalcioMercato cited interest from Arsenal and claimed Liverpool were preparing a £19.5million bid for the January transfer window, whilst fellow Italian publication TuttoSport mooted Everton as potential suitors last week. Likewise, Gazzetta dello Sport’s report, which has been adopted by Mirror Football, The Daily Star and The Express alongside Sport Witness, focuses on Manchester United’s apparent plans to sign the prodigious Azzurri ace.
So, what’s the word?
According to GdS (screenshot above), Belotti’s agent Sergio Lancini is due to meet with Torino next week to discuss a new contract for his client. However, it appears the terms of the new deal are already agreed in principle.
His wages will be increased to around €1.5million per season, the new contract will expire in 2021 – a year later than his current terms – and most significantly of all, it will include a €94million release clause, which converts to just short of £80million.
Consequentially, a new deal will rule out the chances of a January move – although we can’t see any of the aforementioned clubs forking out a staggering £80million for the 22-year-old at this point in his career anyway.
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