Sheffield United are looking to sign a striker from Swiss champions Basel.
The Blades are one of several Premier League and Bundesliga clubs interested in the striker. Philip Otele was a prolific goal scorer for Basel, which won the Swiss Super League last season, scoring nine goals and giving four assists to help the club qualify for the Champions League.
Although the 26-year-old only made his loan move to Basel permanent last month, Allnigeriasoccer.com reports that a departure from the club is not absolutely out of the question.
Basel wants to keep the majority of the group that won the domestic double for them last season and hopes to advance to the league phase of the Champions League, but if they don’t, Sheffield United and others will be surrounding Otele.
Fulham, Burnley, and Brentford in the Premier League, as well as Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mochengladbach and Augsburg, have all been connected with the Nigerian striker.
The amazing story of Otele’s career thus far
Otele’s path to Basel will undoubtedly surprise many, as he began his senior football career with Wolviston FC in the Wearside League in northern England, which is ranked between levels 11 and 13 in the country’s football pyramid. From Wearside, Otele moved to Romania with Kauno Zalgiris, where he scored 10 goals in 2021.
After transferring across Romania to UTA Arad in 2022, Otele joined CFR Cluj in January 2023, where he demonstrated his goal-scoring skills by scoring 18 goals as the Liga I top scorer.
Moving on from Romania, Otele joined Al Wahda in the United Arab Emirates for a reported cost of €3.5 million. He did not score in his ten outings for the UAE Pro League team before joining Basel on loan in January with the option to buy.
Leave a Reply