West Ham United Are Competing With PSG for Serie A Striker

West Ham United are finally in for a striker in the form of Sassuolo’s Gianluca Scamacca. However, they are facing stiff competition for his signature from Paris Saint-German.

According to the Daily Mail, Sassuolo Chief Executive Giovanni Carnevali revealed that:

"West Ham are offering €40m for Scamacca and PSG offering €35m (£29.6m). There are also some add-ons as difference. There’s no agreement with any club now.Nothing is certain. Yes, there are also some bonuses that are different, but there are issues that are not strictly financial, they are tied to the technical project and what the player wants.What we can say for certain is that we are not a club who are forced to sell, so we need to listen to the needs of the player, to the offers that come in and that could come in from one day to the next."

West Ham in Need of a Striker

West Ham has been without a striker since letting Sebastian Haller leave in January 2021. The club must go all in when an opportunity arises to sign one, as it is the missing piece in the jigsaw. Scamacca is an out-and-out centre-forward who scored 16 goals in 36 appearances in Serie A for Sassuolo last season.

The Italian was born in Rome and played for both Lazio and Roma’s academies before heading to the Netherlands to join PSV Eindhoven at just 15. He made his debut for PSV’s reserve side Jong PSV at 17. However, he never played for the first team and headed back to Italy with Sassuolo after making just 3 appearances for Jong PSV.

He played 3 times for his new club before being sent on loan to Serie B side Cremonese. He made 14 appearances for the side and got his first career goal in a 1-1 draw with Palermo. He then returned to the Netherlands on loan to PEC Zwolle. He finally played in the Eredivise making 8 appearances in the league but failed to score.

Scamacca’s Career Really Kicked Off in the 2019/20 Season

Scamacca was then back in Serie B this time on loan to Ascoli for the 2019/20 season. This was when he really started to get going as he made 35 appearances for the club, scoring 13 times and getting 1 assist. This included 4 in the Coppa Italia, which made him share top goalscorer in the competition alongside Carpi’s Michele Vano.

His form got him a loan move to Serie A side Genoa for the 2020/21 season. He scored 8 goals in 24 appearances for them. He also starred in the Coppa Italia again and was again the top goalscorer with another 4 goals.

He finally got his chance at his club, Sassuolo, last season where his form and 16 Serie A goals put the striker on the map and now is a man in demand. He has been a part of the Italy national side from the u17s all the way to now having 7 caps for the seniors. But he is yet to score for the Azzurri.

West Ham Can Offer Him Regular Minutes on the Pitch

He has certainly moved about a lot in his career and at 23 years old he needs to find a club where he can settle for a few years and play regularly. At PSG he will not get that as they already have Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar.

At West Ham, he will play much more regularly and will compete with Michail Antonio for the starting striker’s role. It will be more sensible to join the Hammers at this stage in his career.

For the past couple of weeks, the Hammers have been linked with a few striker options, one being Justin Kluivert from Roma.