Brighton & Hove Albion will reportedly entertain offers for star winger Kaoru Mitoma even if he pens a new long-term contract with the club.
Brighton & Hove Albion will reportedly entertain offers for star winger Kaoru Mitoma even if he pens a new long-term contract with the club.
The 26-year-old is understood to have agreed a new five-year contract with the Seagulls amid interest from a number of top clubs in the Premier League and across Europe.
Manchester United and Manchester City are allegedly contemplating a January move for Mitoma, while fellow English top-flight teams Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have also been credited with an interest.
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are among a number of others believed to be closely monitoring Mitoma, who has established himself as a key player at Brighton since the arrival of head coach Roberto De Zerbi just over 12 months ago.
Mitoma was an integral member of the Seagulls squad that finished sixth in the Premier League last season and secured qualification for the Europa League for the first time in the club’s history, contributing with 10 goals and eight assists in 41 games across all competitions.
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The Japan international has since impressed at the start of the new campaign, scoring three goals and providing four assists in 11 appearances, with his strike in a 4-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers winning the Premier League Goal of the Month award for August.
Mitoma is believed to be fully committed to the project at Brighton under De Zerbi and is set to earn a significant wage rise with his proposed new contract.
The winger is set to become the seventh senior player to extend his contract at Brighton this year after Lewis Dunk, Jason Steele, Solly March, Adam Lallana, Evan Ferguson, Joel Veltman and Jeremy Sarmiento.
Nevertheless, Football Insider reports that the Seagulls will consider offers for Mitoma and are happy to let him leave if their value of the player is met.
The report adds that Brighton currently value the winger at around £70m and would look to generate an enormous profit on the player they picked up for just £2.5m from Japanese outfit Kawasaki Frontale in August 2021.
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Mitoma is the latest Seagulls star that has been linked with a possible exit from the club, who have been lauded for their astute transfer business in recent years having unearthed a plethora of hidden gems that have been sold on for significant profit.
Earlier this summer, Moises Caicedo – a player bought for just £4.5m in 2021 – was sold to Chelsea for a British-record £115m, while Alexis Mac Allister made the move to Liverpool for an initial fee in the region of £35m plus add-ons.
The likes of Roberto Sanchez – an academy graduate – Marc Cucurella, Yves Bissouma, Leandro Trossard and Ben White have also departed following impressive spells on the South Coast.
Eighteen-year-old striker Ferguson has also been linked with a move away from Brighton amid interest from the likes of Man United, but he allegedly turned down the chance to join the Red Devils in the summer in favour of continuing his development in De Zerbi’s first team.
