Football League World
·31 Oktober 2024
Football League World
·31 Oktober 2024
Football League World takes a look at £5m-rated sensation Bazoumana Toure, who has earned transfer interest from the Premier League and Championship
Bazoumana Toure is swiftly emerging among the most sought-after young talents on the continent, with Leeds United, Celtic, and Tottenham Hotspur just three of the clubs reportedly in the hunt for the "unique" 18-year-old sensation.
The teenage winger has burst onto the scene and now finds himself with no shortage of suitors heading into the January transfer window, but who is the Leeds, Celtic and Spurs target?
Football League World takes a closer look...
The youngster is fresh off the block and has only recently begun to make his mark, and he still largely remains as something of an unknown quantity.
Toure, who hails from the Ivory Coast, joined Hammarby of the Swedish top-flight from Ivorian club ASEC Mimosas back in March for just £370,000 and has gone from strength to strength thus far in Scandinavia. The teenager was only rewarded with his first start for the club in May, where he made an assist in a 2-1 victory over IFK Norrkoping - and he hasn't looked back since.
His form has routinely turned heads for Hammarby, who find themselves second in the Allsvenskan table with two games to play.
Toure is also represented by globally renowned agency Unique Sports Group, whose top clients include the likes of Anthony Gordon and Reece James.
With that in mind, it would be no real surprise to see Toure eyeing a move to the Premier League in the not-too-distant future.
According to a recent report from TBR Football, Toure is attracting significant interest from a wide range of domestic outfits.
The report exclusively claims that up to a dozen British clubs attended Hammarby's most recent outing at Sirius, where Toure bagged a brace to take his tally up to eight for the season.
It's reported that Newcastle, Aston Villa, Spurs, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Brighton, and Wolves were all among the Premier League representatives spotted in Sweden to keep tabs on the prodigy, while the likes of Celtic and Championship duo Leeds and Sheffield United were also there.
Just how likely it is that a second-tier club such as Leeds or the Blades could actually pull off the deal remains to be seen, with Toure reportedly valued at £5 million. He's also under contract until 2028, meaning that Hammarby have plenty of security over his future.
Meanwhile, a previous report published by the Mirror claimed that both Arsenal and Manchester United have undertaken respective scouting missions to monitor the Hammarby star.
Make no mistake about it, there's going to be serious competition for his signature before long and Leeds, for example, may end up finding it too difficult to unlock any potential deal.
As evidenced in his reported valuation, Hammarby rate the young flyer extremely highly, leading to club figures lauding his talents to the media.
Last month, sporting director Mikael Hjelmberg explained: "There are a lot of clubs coming to the match against Hacken. We need to plan for a future without him.
"Then if it happens this winter, next summer or even further than that – I don’t think so, we’ll see. But the longer we get to keep him the better."
Toure has also been hailed by Hammarby manager Kim Hellberg, who labelled the star as a "unique talent" with the potential to go right to the very top in his career.
Hellberg said of Toure: "I think he can play at the highest level possible. I don’t see why he shouldn’t have the chance to get there. There have been many players who have had the opportunity to get there but have not taken that route.
"He is unique in the way he learns things and picks things up. Now he scored two goals on his head… and we have worked so much on how he should get into the box and how he should position himself to create advantages linked to the fact that he is not a big player."
When asked about the links to the Premier League, he added: “I would almost be surprised if it didn’t. There we are somewhere."