Although Slaven Bilic has seen massive improvements to his side post the winter transfer window and controversial departure of their star player, Dimitri Payet, the Croat is yet to solve the crisis up front in his striker’s role.
It all started with the loan signing of Simone Zaza from Juventus last summer and the terrible failure of the Italian international. If not for right-back Michail Antonio, who played surprisingly well when Bilic deployed him as the centre-forward, West Ham couldn’t have recovered from their frustrating form.
Now with Andy Carroll in the form of his life since returning from his injury, the Hammers have more or less found stability as they comfortably sit in the top half of the table. However, Bilic doesn’t have another quality option up front beside Carroll as the likes of Ashley Fletcher and Jonathan Calleri has failed to impress so far.
In a hugely competitive transfer window for the midtable clubs last month, West Ham did brilliantly to bring in Robert Snodgrass and Jose Fonte and the next big void to fill for the boss would be the striker. And if reports are to be believed, Bilic seems to have already identified his target in Ludorgorets’ forward Jonatan Cafu.
Landing him won’t be easy as Leicester City and Everton are also keeping tabs on the Brazilian winger and had sent out scouts to watch the 25-year-old play for Ludogorets in their Europa League defeat to Copenhagen. The Brazilian played as a lone striker in the game and although they lost the game, the player has left a good impression on the scouts.
Ludogorets had signed Cafu from Sao Paulo for £1.9m but are ready to sell him this summer if they get a proper offer, which is believed to be around £12m. Leicester had even made an approach in January but opted against pushing a deal through.
Cafu has impressed many with his performances in the Champions League. He scored two goals and provided four assists in 6 Champions League games for Ludogorets and came into the spotlight in the side’s close 3-2 defeat to Arsenal in the group stage game.
An academy product of Desportivo Brasil U19, Cafu has come through the ranks of many Brazilian sides like Boavista Sport Club (RJ), Esporte Clube XV de Novembro (SP), Capivariano Futebol Clube (SP) and Associação Atlética Ponte Preta before he was picked up by Sau Paulo in 2015. After just six months of impressive displays, Ludogorets bought him.
West Ham United are competing for a successive Europa League qualification this season and with things looking positive for them, the Hammers are likely to get it. The London club has the financial prowess to bring Cafu in and with Snodgrass, Lanzini and Noble creating chances for him, he could be a deadly striker for them.
