Chelsea battle Bayern and Atleti for next Eredivisie superstar
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The Premier League’s penchant for picking up the Eredivisie’s top talent looks set to continue this summer, with Memphis Depay joining the Dutch league’s past two Players of the Year, namely Daley Blind and Christian Eriksen, in England.
Each of the aforementioned trio had at least two full senior seasons in Holland under their belts prior to making their way west, but Chelsea are rumoured to be in for a young winger who only made his debut last August.
The Blues are reportedly in a fight with Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid for Ajax’s Anwar El Ghazi, who only turned 20 earlier this month but has been turning heads all season long in Amsterdam.
El Ghazi went on a particularly impressive run between late October and early March, when a consolation strike away to Barcelona in the Champions League began a run of eight goals in 19 games for the Holland Under-21 winger.
A goal-involvement tally of 10 strikes and seven assists in 39 games for Ajax this term puts El Ghazi miles clear of Depay’s numbers in his first full season at PSV, and the youngster has made himself undroppable in recent months, starting 16 of his side’s past 17 games, four in the Europa League.
According to the Telegraph, Chelsea, Bayern and Atletico will all send scouts to watch El Ghazi in action later this month at the Toulon Under-20 tournament, with a bidding war expected during the summer, although he may be better off staying where he is for now.
As the Telegraph suggests, signing for the Premier League champions could see the ‘jong oranje’ head back to Holland to play for feeder club Vitesse, currently fifth in the Eredivisie, 14 points behind second-placed Ajax.
This would clearly be a backwards move, and first-team chances won’t be much easier to come by in Munich or Madrid either.
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