Birmingham City battling Bundesliga clubs for US international set for January exit | OneFootball

Blues are set to face strong competition for the services of Lennard Maloney

Birmingham City have been named as one of the sides interested in a January pursuit for FC Heidenheim's USMNT international midfielder Lennard Maloney, who is set to leave the German club this month.

That is according to an exclusive update from Florian Plettenberg via X, who reported that several other European outfits, including three Bundesliga teams, are interested in acquiring the services of the central midfielder in the weeks to come.

Chris Davies' side have caught the attention of many onlookers for long periods of the League One campaign thus far, not just for their strong first half of the season which has seen them yield 53 points from their first 23 encounters, but their spending power and ability to attract such a high calibre of player as they look for an instant return to the Championship.

Maloney will once again fall into said bracket after being an influential performer for 'Der Dino' as they progressed from the 2.Bundesliga into a maiden UEFA Europa Conference League venture this term, but could potentially swap his current situation for a move to B9, although Birmingham will face a stern test when it comes to fending off continental competition for his signature.

Birmingham City to face European competition in Lennard Maloney saga

Maloney's predicament at the Voith-Arena has been documented by Plettenberg since November when the journalist initially stated that a departure for the 25-year-old this winter had become "increasingly likely" after snubbing a contract offer from the Bundesliga side.

Unsurprisingly, his current employers switched their focus towards garnering some income for Maloney, who was said to have admirers from the German top flight and the Premier League at the time of such revelations.

However, in this fresh update, Birmingham, who have ambitions of ending their exile from the top flight under the ownership of Knighthead Capital Management amid heavy investment and new stadium plans, have joined PAOK and several other sides in the race to sign the man who has previously made a limited number of appearances for both Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund.

Plettenberg's fresh revelation also states that three sides in the Bundesliga are "engaged in concrete talks" with Maloney and that bids are expected to come Heidenheim's way in the not-too-distant future.

Birmingham City will hope to continue their success in the German market

Of course, Maloney is not the first player with associations to German football to be monitored by Blues, which shows how much the likes of Davies and Sporting Director, Craig Gardner, trust the pool of talent coming from this particular part of the world.

Centre-back Christoph Klarer has been a revelation at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park since his reported £3.5m from SV Darmstadt in the summer, with the Austrian an integral factor behind the concession of just 17 goals this season for the Second City side.

Meanwhile, Hannover 96's Phil Neumman is said to have settled on a pre-contract agreement with the club, such is his importance to his current employers and their promotion aims from the 2.Bundesliga.

Maloney's defensive nous would be a welcome boost to Birmingham's squad which already possesses the likes of Seung-Ho Paik and Tomoki Iwata in the centre of the park, as the two-time USMNT international does rank extremely high in percentiles when it comes to both clearances and aerial duels won in comparison to players of a similar ilk, with an average of 3.68 and 2.26 respectively.

It comes as little surprise that the third-tier leaders have been linked with yet another ambitious swoop, although it remains to be seen whether Tom Wagner and Tom Brady are able to sell the project to the midfielder, especially when the likes of PAOK still have a chance of progressing in the UEFA Europa League.