Ex-Blackburn flop turned-Bundesliga hotshot set for Premier League return
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With the mid-season transfer window looming ever nearer, Premier League clubs will be ramping up their scouting activity. For any side lacking goals – and there are plenty of them – FC Koln’s Anthony Modeste is sure to be a prime target.
A few of you may remember the name from the Frenchman’s dismal loan spell at Blackburn in 2012, but four years on, Modeste is now a free-scoring delight.
If we asked you to name the man currently sitting top of the Bundesliga scoring charts, we fancy you’d say plenty of names before coming round to the 26-year-old.
Modeste has plundered eight goals in eight games for Koln – over half of their total – as they sit a very impressive sixth in the table.
But this is no one-season wonder.
The ex-Rovers man fired in 15 goals from 34 appearances last season, and added three more in just two DFB Pokal Cup games as well.
Koln paid out just under £4m for his services in 2015, following 19 goals in 55 games for fellow German outfit Hoffenheim.
After leaving Blackburn at the end of the 2011-12 campaign, Modeste didn’t let his troubled spell in England linger, slotting home 15 goals in 36 games for French side Bastia while on loan from Bordeaux.
It was that form which saw Hoffenheim come calling in the summer of 2013, and from there, the Frenchman’s stature – and goal record – has grown and grown.
It’s little wonder than that a move to Arsenal was touted in 2015, while West Ham have also been linked with the forward in the past 18 months.
A move to the Gunners may seem unlikely now, but West Brom are just one of a number of sides linked with the sought-after Modeste for a January swoop.
Valued by transfermarkt.co.uk at just over £7m, any potential buyer would need to break a contract which runs until 2021.
But given his current form, Modeste will be very much in demand come January.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
