{"id":16514,"date":"2026-07-11T22:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=16514"},"modified":"2026-07-11T22:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:54:18","slug":"black-cats-ready-to-spend-e40m-for-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=16514","title":{"rendered":"Black Cats ready to spend \u20ac40M for defender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n\t\t\t<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sunderland transfer news: Transfer market heating up as Chelsea and Sunderland eye ambitious summer swoops<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunderland transfer news: The summer window is properly shifting into gear. Behind closed doors, the recruitment meetings are getting tense, phones are ringing off the hook, and English clubs are flashing the cash. Two names have suddenly jumped to the top of the wishlist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Italian transfer insider Nico Schira reports that Chelsea are keeping tabs on Monaco frontman Folarin Balogun. It makes sense. The Blues need goals. They want someone sharp, direct, and completely fearless in the box. Balogun fits the bill perfectly after a stellar year out in France.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 25-year-old American international practically carried Monaco at times last season, bagging 13 goals and setting up another four in his 30 Ligue 1 outings. He scooped up the Monaco Player of the Season award for his troubles, too. That kind of form doesn\u2019t go unnoticed. Now, a return to England looks very much on the cards.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wearsiders ready to break the bank for defensive rock<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over on Wearside, something rather extraordinary is brewing. Sunderland are showing serious financial muscle. They\u2019ve locked onto Sassuolo centre-back Tarik Muharemovic, and they aren\u2019t messing around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rumours out of Italy suggest the Black Cats are ready to fork out somewhere between \u20ac35M and \u20ac40M to get their man. That is serious money for a Championship outfit. Muharemovic is coming off a massive season, having clocked 32 Serie A appearances while managing an impressive 84% passing accuracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He even chipped in with two goals and two assists. But it was his recent performances for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2026 World Cup round of 32 that really sent his market value through the roof. Sunderland see the 23-year-old as the absolute bedrock of their future defence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To sweeten the deal, they\u2019ve drawn up a massive contract offer that runs all the way until 2031. We\u2019re talking \u20ac3.5M a year plus performance bonuses. It\u2019s a massive statement of intent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a twist, though. Juventus are watching this space very closely. They negotiated a 50% sell-on clause when they sold the defender to Sassuolo, meaning the Old Lady stands to make a absolute killing if this English deal crosses the line. Managers always want their targets in for pre-season training before the real matches kick off. Sunderland want this sorted fast before a rival jumps the queue.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-author\">\n<div class=\"c-author__avatar\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aacadf3e95bfb01ce13b429dee6bd0a5e90e6507900d73b4a9224a6381a644be?s=75&amp;d=mm&amp;r=g\" width=\"75\" height=\"75\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-author__thumb\" alt=\"Photo of Rohit Sarkar\"\/>\n    <\/div>\n<h3 class=\"c-author__name\">Rohit Sarkar<\/h3>\n<div class=\"c-author__bio\">\n<p>Rohit Sarkar is a passionate writer with a deep love for multiple sports, but his favourites are football and cricket. Since 2017, he has been covering football and cricket news with a keen eye for detail and compelling storytelling. He is a fan of the beautiful game and a specialist\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!-- \/\/c-author --><\/p>\n<p> <!-- \/\/c-share --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t    <!-- Begin Tabola Creative --><\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunderland transfer news: Transfer market heating up as Chelsea and Sunderland eye ambitious summer swoops&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}