West Ham striker Haller close to joining Ajax in £20m deal

James Holland
Sebastien Haller West Ham Ajax

Sebastien Haller is close to securing a West Ham exit after the club accepted a £20 million offer from Ajax for the player.

Haller joined from German side Eintracht Frankfurt in July 2019 for a club record fee.

He’s failed to live up to the excitement however, having scored 14 goals in 53 games for the Hammers.


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According to Sky Sports, club chiefs have now accepted an offer from the 2018/19 Dutch champions.

Haller is now free to have a medical and discuss personal terms in Amsterdam.

The £20 million fee offered is less than half of the £45 million that was paid for him in 2019.

The news shows West Ham’s willingness to get Haller off their books, as they try to improve their attacking options.

The Ivorian international has scored just three league goals this season in 16 appearances.

One of his few goals was the fantastic overhead kick against Crystal Palace in December.

But that wasn’t enough to kickstart his campaign.

The Hammers will now begin their search for a replacement. They’ve been linked with former Southampton goalscorer Graziano Pelle and Lyon striker Moussa Dembele.

The latter has been valued at £60 million, so Haller’s transfer could be a route to getting that sort of money available.

Pelle, meanwhile, is a free agent after leaving Chinese side Shandong Luneng recently. Aged 35, he is certainly not a long term solution for David Moyes’ side.

Haller’s brilliant goal against Palace did impress Moyes, but the Scotsman still wanted more from the 26-year-old. Speaking after the match, he said: “I’d have liked him to get a tap-in in the first half when the goalie parried one out, when nobody was on it to get the rebound!”

“I might surprise you by saying I wasn’t that surprised, Seb has an incredible ability to get his leg up really high and score goals like that. It’s the tap ins I want him to score as well.

“We need him to be a big part, we needed somebody to come up with the goods. We looked for large parts of the game like we were huffing and puffing but didn’t look like we’d get anything.

“He’s been trying to settle, it takes time. Sometimes expectations are too big, we expect a lot from him as well. We want his goals in the Premier League, not just cup games.”