Borussia Dortmund are reportedly looking at Red Bull Salzburg wonderkid Karim Adeyemi, who is also a Barcelona target, as a potential replacement for Jadon Sancho.
According to an exclusive report from transfermarkt.de, Red Bull Sazburg prodigy Karim Adeyemi, who is currently on loan at FC Liefering, is on the radar of Borussia Dortmund. The Bundesliga giants are scouring the youngster as a potential replacement for Jadon Sancho, should he end up leaving in the coming transfer window(s). Adeyemi is also being tailed by Arsenal, Liverpool and Barcelona.
English international Sancho is being heavily linked to a return to the Premier League, with reports stating that Manchester United are set to launch a double swoop for Sancho and Erling Haaland. There are other suitors with a keen interest in Sancho and regardless of where he ends up, Dortmund would need to replace Sancho if and when he leaves.
Karim Adeyemi is in the second year of his two-year loan at FC Liefering. The first season saw him grab a healthy return of 6 goals and 4 assists in 20 league games in the second division in Austria. The current season though, has seen Adeyemi improve on his average, with 5 goals and 4 assists in just 11 league appearances so far.
His form for FC Liefering at the senior grade and in the UEFA Youth League has caught the attention of the European bigwigs, with Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal and Dortmund named as potential suitors.
— STEPHEN AYA (@STEPHENAYA) November 13, 2019
Barcelona, in fact, are one step ahead of others. The report speculates that the Catalan giants already had a €15 million bid rejected for the 17-year-old and are still keeping a track of his performances. Barcelona are looking to bring in young attacking talents to possibly take over from the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez whenever the two leave or decide to hang up their boots, whichever is earlier.
Arsenal and Liverpool have only been peripherally mentioned. But, the two Premier League clubs are known to scour for young gems to add to their youth setups while Arsenal have already shown a penchant for finding young gems that are prepared to step up to the first-team setup as in the case of Matteo Guendouzi and Gabriel Martinelli.
Dortmund though, are the prime focus in this report. Jadon Sancho is billed to leave by summer 2020 and a replacement is needed. But, the tenable thing about the report is that it mentions FC Liefering playing Adeyemi more and more on the wing, which is untrue. Adeyemi has mostly played as a centre-forward and in fact, all of his goals and assists have come from that position.
Since Barcelona had a €15 million bid rejected, Salzburg will clearly require more from Dortmund, given their potential cash inflow from Jadon Sancho’s sale. Adeyemi is progressing nicely and it will be interesting to see whether he does end up at Dortmund as a Sancho replacement in the future. Right now, Dortmund seem to be just scouring potential targets.
