Birmingham City face La Liga fight to land Leeds United star as Spanish bid rejected

Birmingham City face La Liga fight to land Leeds United star as Spanish bid rejected

Birmingham City has expressed interest in Mateo Joseph, while Leeds United has turned down Real Betis’ bid.

According to The Athletic, the Spanish team has made an offer to sign the player on loan with a buyout clause

included in the agreement.

Last season, Joseph helped Daniel Farke’s team get promoted to the Premier League by scoring three goals and

dishing out three assists in 39 games.

With Joel Piroe, Luke Nmecha, and Patrick Bamford vying for playing time, it is unclear how significant he will be to

the Whites in the top division next season.

Birmingham face competition for Mateo Joseph

In June, GiveMeSport revealed that Birmingham was one among the teams keeping an eye on Joseph’s

circumstances.

Although Betis made the first official move, Strasbourg was also identified as an interested party.

The top level team is rumoured to have offered to loan the Spaniard for the duration of the season, with the

possibility of a permanent agreement at the conclusion of the season.

The Whites, who were vying for promotion from the Championship, are thought to have turned down a £10 million

bid for Joseph back in January.

Leeds is reportedly seeking to keep the forward and use him to give Piroe, Nmecha, and Bamford competition for

Premier League playing time.

Joseph only started 11 league games for the team since making his debut in the senior squad, despite having gone

through Elland Road’s academy system.

Birmingham’s summer business

Since being promoted back to the Championship, Birmingham has been very active this summer.

With their sights set on Premier League promotion, Chris Davies’ team hopes to start competing at the top of the

second level right away.

After their original loan agreements, the Blues have brought Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Alfons Sampstead to the

team permanently, along with Kyogo Furuhashi, Bright Osayi-Samuel, and Kanya Fujimoto.

Along with Demarai Grey, Phil Neumann has rejoined St. Andrew’s following the signing of a pre-contract agreement

earlier this year.

Mateo Joseph deal could be tricky for Birmingham

Given the £10 million offer turned down by Leeds in January, it’s likely the Whites will have a steep asking price for

the player now.

Since the agreement usually doesn’t work out for the selling club and is usually only accepted as a desperate attempt

to get rid of a player, it’s not unexpected that they declined the loan with a buy option.

However, Leeds appears to want to hold onto Joseph, who at 21 has a lot of potential to develop into a top-tier

forward.

Their best chance of acquiring him this season may be to loan him to Birmingham with no buyout option, but it’s

uncertain if the Blues would be amenable to bringing him to St. Andrew’s for a brief stint.

Read more news on https://www.sportupdates.co.uk/