When the summer transfer window closed, West Ham were still hunting for an attacking player. Director of recruitment Nils Koppen went to the wire for Nürnberg forward Mohamed Ali Zoma, and the answer he got was a flat no.
West Ham saw a €20 million offer rejected after Nürnberg decided not to sell before the deadline. The bid was roughly £17 million including add-ons. It was an aggressive offer for a 22-year-old second-division striker who had cost Nürnberg a fraction of that a year earlier. Nürnberg sporting director Joti Chatzialexiou vetoed the move, and BILD reported that Zoma and his representatives wanted to go to London. Nürnberg wanted to keep their main attacker for the promotion push.
Chatzialexiou’s reasoning looks sharper every week. Zoma has started the season in outstanding form, with seven goals in his first eight 2. Bundesliga appearances, including a hat-trick on the opening weekend against Dynamo Dresden. Nürnberg sit second in the table. That is the best possible outcome for a club that refused to sell. For West Ham, it is an expensive reminder of what they could have had.
Zoma did not hide his disappointment. After scoring in a 4-1 win over Arminia Bielefeld, he refused to celebrate, and Nürnberg manager Miroslav Klose had to step in. Klose said he had spoken to the player, and the problem passed quickly. “Now, you wouldn’t know,” Klose said of Zoma’s frustration. Zoma himself has since said he feels good about staying and that he loves Nürnberg’s fans.
Roberto Mancini gave Zoma his first senior Italy call-up for the Nations League window, and he got into a match for his first cap off the bench in a 2-0 defeat to Belgium. Then came a setback. Zoma was stretchered off after 32 minutes against Energie Cottbus with a shoulder injury, and Nürnberg have confirmed surgery that rules him out of the next Italy squad.
The injury should only delay his return to the national team. A forward scoring at this rate, with the pace to play as a left winger, second striker or centre-forward, will be back in Mancini’s thinking once he is fit.
“I’m not closing my doors to anyone.”
Mohamed Ali Zoma
Several clubs will vie for his services
That is the real problem for West Ham. A player who was available for around €20 million in August is now one of Europe’s most talked-about forwards. Nürnberg are reportedly demanding more than €30 million, well above his estimated market value of roughly €20 million.
The competition is serious. Bournemouth and Brentford are watching closely from the Premier League, while Roma, Napoli, Marseille, Lens and Paris FC are also tracking him. Hull City were linked with Zoma in the summer as well and could return to the table. West Ham are not the only ones who saw what he could do, and many of the clubs now interested can offer top-flight football, something West Ham cannot currently match.
Zoma himself has kept every door open. “I’m not closing my doors to anyone,” he said when asked about West Ham and a possible move.
If West Ham want Zoma in January, they need to get ahead of the market. That likely means a bid well beyond the €20 million they offered in August, and one that persuades Nürnberg to sell in the middle of a promotion race. It also means convincing a player who was angry about being held back in the summer that the Championship, and a club he couldn’t join, is worth the wait.
For West Ham, the lesson from August is that waiting cost them a better price, and the same hesitation in January could cost them the player altogether.
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