Brighton are close to signing former West Ham transfer target Abdallah Sima from Slavia Prague, according to reports from The Athletic.
The report suggests they are poised to purchase the 20-year-old for around £7 million.
According to Ryan Taylor of The Express, Brighton has now agreed on a deal in principle to sign the youngster.
Sima scored 15 goals in 32 appearances in his debut campaign. Back in May Prague manager Jindrich Trpisovsky revealed to the club’s official Twitter account about West Ham’s inquiry.
“There is interest in Abdallah Sima,” he said. “There’s a set price at which he could leave. We’re currently focusing on him playing the rest of the season with us.
“We talked about it with the boys from West Ham, where they have him very high on the list of possible reinforcements.”
Slavia Prague president Jaroslav Tvrdik had revealed that were are six contenders for Sima’s signature. Two of those are from the Premier League, and it is “almost certain” that the striker will be on the move hinting one of the Premier League sides was West Ham.
“We negotiate through his agent or directly with six candidates,” Tvrdik told his club’s website. “Two are from the Premier League, two from France, one from Germany, one from Italy.
It seems that David Moyes had second thoughts about Sima and decided to pursue other targets.