Atletico Madrid to be kept waiting in bid to sign 23-goal striker from La Liga rivals | OneFootball

In the last few days, Atletico Madrid have turned their attention to Alexander Sorloth in their pursuit of a new striker. A deal for Artem Dovbyk collapsed at the 11th hour last week, which has led club officials to pursue the man that finished one goal behind the soon-to-be Roma striker in last season’s Pichichi Trophy race.

Matteo Moretto has reported that a deal to take Sorloth to Atleti will be agreed upon imminently. However, it’s been reported by Diario AS that Villarreal will not sanction the move until they have finalised a replacement for the Norwegian marksman.

It could mean that Sorloth does not officially join up with Diego Simeone’s squad for a couple of weeks yet. This will be incredibly frustrating for Atletico Madrid supporters, whom already had to wait weeks for official confirmation of Robin Le Normand’s arrival from Real Sociedad.

It will be interesting to see how Villarreal go for in their own striker search. They have plenty of money to spend on the back of the sales of Ben Brereton Diaz and Filip Jorgensen, although their lack of European football for the 2024-25 season could make it tough to tempt their top target(s).