The Italian journalist who broke the Sebastien Haller to West Ham story in the summer and may have given the Hammers new hope of landing another coveted striker.
West Ham United have a long-standing interest in Brazilian striker Gabriel Barbosa.
The 23-year-old is owned by Inter Milan but is on loan with Flamengo until the end of December.
There Barbosa, nicknamed Gabigol, has scored a superb 32 goals in 43 games.
West Ham long-linked with Gabigol
And that, according to Italian outlet FC Inter News, has rekindled West Ham’s interest in a player they were linked with in the last three windows since Manuel Pellegrini’s arrival.
Barbosa’s agent revealed back in January that West Ham tried to rush through a deal for his client, but he ended up moving back to Brazil on loan for a year instead (FC Inter 1908).
FC Inter News claims Antonio Conte is looking to sell Barbosa – a former Santos teammate of Hammers star Felipe Anderson – for around £22.5million.
Pellegrini a striker light
Pellegrini is desperately short of striker options this season.
Haller arrived for £45million but all five of last season’s strikers were shipped out of West Ham in the summer.
Albian Ajeti has not looked up to it so far. And it is asking a lot for Haller to remain fit to lead the line alone all season.
Barbosa had looked set to sign permanently for Flamengo (Sky Sports Italy).
But now Italian journalist Nicolo Schira, who famously broke the Haller to West Ham story over the summer, has claimed Barbosa could move to Europe instead refusing to do a ‘Marko Arnautovic’ by snubbing two mega money moves to China.
Italian journalist who broke Haller makes encouraging claim
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