Norwich City win transfer battle as player picks them – Rivals’ efforst unrewarded

Norwich City have won the battle with Lens for striker Mathias Kvistgaarden, who has chosen them over the French side.

That’s according to Foot Mercato, who report that Lens have been left disappointed in their pursuit of the striker.

According to their information, despite reaching an agreement with Brondby for Kvistgaarden and doing everything to possible to convince the Danish U21 international, he has finally chosen to join Norwich.

A report yesterday claimed that Norwich were in the picture for the 23-goal striker but had to move quickly because Lens were working hard to get him from Brondby as well.

It was made clear the French side were doing all that they could for the 23-year-old, but Foot Mercato now report that has not been enough. He has instead chosen to join Norwich in the Championship.

This is despite working hard to convince the player personally and their fanbase campaigning hard to work on him too. That saw the hashtag #KvisgarteenLensois trending in France, and quickly at that too.

It was all for nought, though, as he prefers the move to Norwich, who will now presumably move to wrap up a deal as quickly as possible

Norwich City: Porto look to close out Sainz transfer

The 24-year-old’s chances of a return to first club, Athletic Bilbao, appear to have ended with European Championship winner Nico Williams signing a new 10-year deal to spurn Barcelona’s advances.

But the Portuguese heavyweights have made a compelling pitch to the Spaniard’s camp, with discussions believed to have ramped up in the past 24 hours, with the expectation the clubs can now reach an agreement after on-going talks this summer.

City knocked back an initial approach from the former Champions League winners, and Porto’s interest was on the backburner during their appearance at the recent Club World Cup.

Portuguese outlet Record claim the former Champions League winners are now confident of landing Sainz for an initial £13m fee, plus add ons, with negotiations continuing.

The Dragons are in the process of confirming the appointment of Francesco Farioli as their new head coach, who previously had two coaching spells in Turkey that coincided with Sainz’s stint at Giresunspor.

City’s former sporting director, Stuart Webber, took advantage of a relegation clause to bring Sainz to England in 2023 on a free transfer.

The attacker’s 18-goal haul in the Championship last season put him on the radar of a number of top clubs across the continent.

Sainz’s representatives were at Colney towards the end of the campaign to thrash out his exit strategy this coming summer. The left-sided attacker has 12 months left on his existing City deal.

Sporting director Ben Knapper confirmed at the Carrow Road unveiling of new head coach Liam Manning there had been formal offers. Porto and Italian champions Napoli were the early front-runners this off-season.

“Listen, we’ve had multiple formal offers (for Borja),” he said, last month. “There’s no surprise for a player at that level who performed how he did last season. There’s big interest from particularly a couple of different clubs, but there’s others circling as well. We’ve had formal proposals, but nothing’s quite met our valuation.

“Those discussions are on-going. Let’s see how they conclude. Of course he’s a player with big interest in the market, but it’s got to be right for us. We’ve shown an ability, I think, at this club long before my time, to sell players really well. It’s part of our strategy, and that’ll be no different with Borja.”

City are in the market for a couple of additions to Manning’s squad in wide areas, one of which is likely to be a top tier Premier League loan.

Danish attacker Mathias Kvistgaarden is also in their sights, with the 23-year-old capable of operating anywhere along the frontline.