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Sunderland have made a bid for Argentine starlet Mateo Bajamich, Roker Report can exclusively reveal.
The 21-year-old forward currently plays for Instituto in the Primera B Nacional, the second tier of Argentine football, and has scored nine goals in 29 games since making his debut for the club.
Sources in South America suggest that a baseline offer of £500,000, with a hefty sell-on clause and bonuses, has been made by Sunderland, with the player thought to be open to a move to the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland will have competition for the player, as MLS side Houston Dynamo have made a bid (reportedly of £500k rising to £1m for 80% of the player’s registration), that the Argentine club are considering, according to the club vice president, Juan Manuel Cavagliatto on Radio Impacto:
A proposal has arrived. It is being evaluated by the Board of Directors. When the people who are evaluating it get the numbers right, a decision will be made.
If it is not convincing, it is rejected. We received a lot of proposals that the press did not know about, and they were rejected.
Targeting Bajamich would fall in line with Sunderland’s hopes of building a more analytical and data driven approach to recruitment, an approach that bore fruit with the recent arrival of Kosovan defender Arbenit Xhemajli.