Birmingham City in "advanced" talks over deal for top flight midfielder | OneFootball

Reports in the Portuguese media have confirmed that Birmingham City have made a bid for Gil Vicente's Japanese midfielder Kanya Fujimoto.

Reports in the Portuguese media have claimed that Birmingham City are in advanced talks over a deal for Japanese midfielder Kanya Fujimoto of Gil Vicente.

According to journalist Sebastião Sousa-Pinto of Sport TV Portugal reporting via X on Saturday, Birmingham City have made a bid to Liga Portugal club Gil Vicente for the Japanese midfielder.

The Blues are still celebrating their record-breaking 111 points as they sealed a quick promotion back to the Championship following relegation at the end of the 2023/24 season, but they are not hanging around in the transfer market as they seek to strengthen their squad ahead of their return to the second tier.

Portuguese journalist confirms Birmingham City in "advanced" Kanya Fujimoto talks

Birmingham City's bid for the 25-year-old attacking midfielder was confirmed on Saturday afternoon by Sebastião Sousa-Pinto of Sport TV Portugal.

He said: "Birmingham City have made a bid for Fujimoto. The deal is not finalised, but negotiations are moving towards advanced stages. The ‘clock is ticking’ - expected soon. Step by step to close the deal."

As things stand, then, nothing has yet been finalised, but there is confidence that a deal will be confirmed in the coming days or weeks.

Fujimoto is experienced, and he might not cost Birmingham that much money

Kanya Fujimoto is out of contract with Gil Vicente this summer, so there will be no transfer fee to be paid for his services.

Furthermore, Capology estimate his wage at the club to have been £5,385-a-week. Even allowing for a handsome pay increase for moving to England, the total amount that would have to be paid to take him to St Andrew's and keep him there doesn't seem excessive.

And in return for this, Birmingham would be getting an experienced player. Fujimoto originally came to Portugal in 2020 on loan from the Japanese club Tokyo Verdy, where he was a product of their academy, with an option for the Portuguese to buy out his contract at the end of the loan spell.

This option was taken up and Fujimoto has been with the club ever since, making 157 appearances for them over five seasons. Birmingham may have been impressed by his average rating during his time there, which has increased incrementally year-on-year almost every year since he arrived in Portugal.

Gil Vicente have already finished their domestic league season in 13th place in the table, although they could yet drop a place depending on the results of matches still to be played elsewhere.

Since joining the club, their best final League position was fifth in 2021/22, which was enough to qualify them for the following season's Europa Conference League, where they beat FC Riga over two legs before losing to the Dutch club AZ in the play-off round.

Birmingham are building quite a collection of Japanese players at St Andrew's. Should Fujimoto's transfer be completed, he would become the third on the books of the club.

Ayumu Yokoyama made ten appearances for the club earlier in the season before being loaned out to Genk's B team, but Tomoki Iwata has been a regular presence in their first team this season. They had another as well, but Kōji Miyoshi left at the end of last summer's transfer window to go to VfL Bochum.

There will be further signings at St Andrew's throughout what promises to be an extremely busy summer in the transfer market.