West Ham United have made a £20million bid to sign Lorient striker Terem Moffi in the January transfer window.
football.london understands that a bid for Nigerian international has been launched with the Hammers keen to bolster their attacking options ahead of the second half of the season for an initial £20m, rising to £25m in potential add-ons.
Moffi has been one of the best performing strikers in France’s top-flight, Ligue 1, this season and here is a profile on the forward.
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The basic info
Terem Moffi is a 23-year-old 6ft 2in striker born in Calabar in Nigeria, who has also played as a winger on both sides.
Moffi left Nigeria and moved to England at the age of 17 to join the Buckswood Football Academy in Hastings, East Sussex. Shortly after that, he started his professional career with Kauno Zalgiris in Lithuania.
After playing for two clubs in Lithuania he moved to Belgium in 2020 for a brief stint with top-flight side Kortrijk before joining Lorient in October 2020.
His career to date
Moffi made his professional debut for Zalgiris on August 17, 2017, coming on as a substitute during a 2-0 defeat to Stumbras. He played eight matches in a row that saw him score his first professional goal during a 2-1 loss to Lonava, his only goal for Zalgiris.
In 2019, Moffi moved from Zalgiris to fellow Lithuanian side Riteriai where he started to build a real name for himself. During that season, he scored 20 goals in 29 league games to help Riteriai finish third in the league and quality for the qualifying rounds of the Europa League, ending the year as the division’s joint-second top scorer and one of six players to net a hat-trick.
That form earned him a move to Belgium, joining Kortrijk in Belgium’s top-flight for around €150,000 (£133,00) but his spell in Belgium was rather short-lived. Due to the coronavirus pandemic cutting the 2019/20 Belgian season short, Moffi only played seven league games that season after arriving in January 2020, but did score four goals. He left Kortrijk that year, following five goals for them in 11 games but earned himself an €8million (£7.1m) move to French side Lorient in October 2020.
Moffi made his Lorient debut nine days after his big money move and got off to the perfect start, scoring and assisting during a 3-1 win away at Stade Rennais.
His debut campaign saw him score 15 times in 34 appearances in all competitions, including a run of five consecutive league games with a goal, ending with netting in a 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain, as well as a hat-trick against Bordeaux that led to him finishing joint-ninth in the scoring charts, above PSG star Neymar, then Lorient teammate and now Brentford forward Yoane Wissa, and potential future West Ham colleague Lucas Paqueta.
His second season dipped slightly at Lorient, only scoring eight times in 37 league games, but his goals did include getting on the scoresheet against PSG and Olympique Lyonnais.
This season however, he has been in flying form and has 12 league goals in just 18 appearances this season, scoring the opener in a 3-1 away defeat to Marseille on Saturday.
Moffi’s 2022/23 season so far
Moffi’s dozen of league goals makes him the joint-second highest scorer in Ligue 1 this season, with only PSG’s World Cup Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappe (13) ahead of him.
The 23-year-old’s form has seen him net braces three times in the league this season, as well as another goal to his collection against PSG.
Of his 12 league goals, nine have come inside the penalty area, with the other three inside the six-yard box, making him the penalty box finisher Moyes has been hoping to find this season out of current options Gianluca Scamacca and Michail Antonio.
International career
Moffi is a seven-time Nigeria international, winning his first two caps in June 2021 in friendlies against Cameroon.
His first two goals for his country came in a 10-0 win over Sao Tome and Principe in June 2022, having been at the Africa Cup of Nations last year with Nigeria, but not playing a single minute in the tournament.
Moffi’s third and most recent international goal came in November 2022 during a 2-1 friendly defeat to Algeria ahead of their 2022 World Cup campaign.
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