Stoke City are close to completing the signing of Cameroonian forward, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. The player is set for a medical at Stoke and will sign a three-year deal with the Potters. The forward will arrive on a free after he ran down his contract with Schalke, meaning that Stoke still haven’t spent a single penny in the transfer market.
Choupo-Moting is a player who can play either as a striker or a winger. He is most likely to play on the wing at Stoke, as they look to fill the void left by Marko Arnautovic. The forward has scored 18 goals in 82 appearances for Schalke whilst scoring 13 goals in 42 appearances for Cameroon!
The star striker has played for other clubs such as Hamburger SV, 1. FC Nurnberg (loan) and 1. FSV Mainz 05, scoring a total of 27 goals in 122 appearances for the 3 clubs combined. Choupo-Moting also played for Germany at youth level, playing for the German U19 and U21 sides. This was because he was actually born in Germany, his mother was German and he also had a German passport.
The majority of Stoke fans seem relatively happy with the deal, however, most are getting slightly worried as the club has still not spent any money in the transfer market and in this day and age getting players on the cheap can be costly. That could all change quite soon though as the Potters have been linked with Mario Lemina from Juventus for a fee of around £16m. Choupo-Moting adds pace and power to the Stoke forward line, he has similar attributes to Arnautovic which will make this a like for like deal.
Choupo-Moting will be linking up with the likes of Saido Berahino, Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan Krkic, Joe Allen and Ramadan Sobhi. He will be an instant starter for Stoke, while Ramadan Sobhi will play second fiddle yet again for the second season in a row, as he looks to learn from the likes of Choupo-Moting.
This is a great deal for Stoke, I’m sure they would’ve preferred to keep Arnautovic, but they haven’t. With the lack of transfer activity in recent times at Stoke, I think the fans would’ve taken anyone. However, they haven’t just recruited anyone, they have got their hands on some real quality. The new season starts on Saturday, and now Stoke fans can go into it with some optimism and look forward to seeing their new star winger.
