West Ham and Crystal Palace are both keen on a January move for striker Hugo Ekitike, who Paris Saint-Germain would be willing to loan out or sell for the right price.
Both clubs were interested in Ekitike over the summer, and Palace held talks with the 21-year-old.
Standard Sport understands that Palace consider Ekitike a viable replacement for Jean-Philippe Mateta, who Eintracht Frankfurt are hopeful of signing in January with Palace ready to consider offers.
When Palace rejected bids in August from Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig for Mateta and decided to stick with him as Odsonne Edouard’s understudy, Frankfurt became the frontrunners to sign Ekitike, though he remained at PSG where he has played just eight minutes of football so far this season.
Before approaching PSG over the possibility of signing Ekitike in the summer, Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho was top of Palace's list of targets.
Meanwhile, West Ham are in the market for a new striker with Michail Antonio and Danny Ings - the club’s only out-and-out centre-forwards - not trusted to deliver a regular-enough supply of goals.
Ekitike remains a target for the Hammers, just as he was in the summer when technical director Tim Steidten travelled to Brazil to watch another player they were tracking - Corinthians’s Yuri Alberto, a one-time Brazilian international.
Newcastle believed they had twice agreed a deal to sign Ekitike in 2022, but the Frenchman instead went on a season-long loan to PSG. That deal became permanent in the summer, with a transfer fee of £30million paid to his former club Reims.
Reports that Newcastle have gone back in for the striker are understood to be wide of the mark. Ekitike has scored 24 goals in 87 senior club appearances over the course of his career so far.
