According to latest reports, Sheffield Wednesday are ready to sell Fernando Forestieri for the right price and Stoke City have expressed interest in the 28-year-old attacker. The Owls will have to clear their debts before the onset of the 2018/19 campaign and that would require for them to offload their most saleable assets. The Italian will fetch them a decent amount of cash and the Potters are looking to reinvest some of their Premier League money.
Forestieri has been with Sheffield for close to three years now and still has 24 months left in his contract. He is versatile with his positioning and can appear in almost any position on the offensive end of the pitch.
The 28-year-old was born in Argentina to Italian parents and was trained in the highly esteemed Boca Juniors youth academy. He moved to Genoa with his parents in 2006, despite facing resistance from Boca.
He made his professional debut in the Serie B against Empoli and spent three years with the Red and Blues. The Rosario-born player bounced around the Italian first and second division and even had a loan spell away to Malaga in his early years.
Watford brought him out on loan to the Vicarage in the 2012/13 season and made his arrival permanent after an impressive debut season. He helped the Hornets earn promotion to the Premier League but slowly fell behind established names in the pecking order.
He made close to a 100 appearances for the side and was directly involved in 44 goals. Forestieri was primarily an attacking midfielder but his footballing intelligence allowed him to be impactful as a striker and from the wings as well. He was always a bright prospect coming out of Argentina, with 26 youth caps and 9 goals for Italy.
The 28-year-old now has 162 games worth of Championship experience in which he has scored 52 and furthered 36 assists. Last season he appeared in only 10 second division games to score 5 and assist once.
A knee injury kept him out of action for most of the campaign but Forestieri still came back to prove his attacking prowess. He is creatively adept and has the technical skills to appear from anywhere in the final third.
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Stoke could use a player of his pedigree to get the entire team clicking on the offensive end. Gary Rowett is looking for quality players to add to the current Stoke roster and Forestieri seems to be a player he could use to beef up his attack.
