According to reports by a number of credible sources, West Ham have agreed a deal to sign Gianluca Scamacca from Sassuolo, for whose services they will pay £30.5m straight up along with £5m which may come later in the form of reasonably achievable add-ons.
The 6’4” striker took his first football steps at the academy of Lazio, and also played for Roma and PSV Eindhoven at different youth levels before returning to Italy to take up a place in Sassuolo’s Under-19 side. Having earned first-team promotion in 2017, he had loan spells with Cremonese, PEC Zwolle, Ascoli and Genoa. He returned to the club last summer, and at the age of 23, he has 16 goals and one assist in 41 appearances in all competitions for Sassuolo. He also has seven caps as an Italy international under his belt.
Though he is capable of playing in a number of attacking roles, his formidable frame makes him ideally suited to lead the line as a centre-forward.
Despite the Scamacca agreement being in place, West Ham are also maintaining their interest in Chelsea’s Armando Broja. It was initially believed they would move for either one or the other, but the fact that they’ve missed out on Jesse Lingard who has joined Nottingham Forest as a free agent changes the situation slightly; the signing of both strikers hasn’t been ruled out at this point.
That, however, may change again, as the Hammers also pursue Filip Kostic of Eintracht Frankfurt. No agreement has been reached yet on that front, but the negotiations for the 29-year-old winger/wing-back are in progress.
The 48-cap Serbia international started out at Radnicki Kragujevac and played for Groningen, VfB Stuttgart and Hamburger SV. He left the latter to join Entracht in 2018 on an initial loan, which was made permanent a year later. In all competitions, he has made a total of 169 appearances for the Europa League holders, scoring 33 goals and producing 63 assists.
