Southampton are said to be monitoring the progress of Sunderland striker and hot prospect Josh Maja.
According to the Mirror, Southampton have joined top-six duo Manchester City and Spurs in tracking the 19-year-old, whose contract runs out at the end of the season.
Maja is growing his reputation as one of the best young talents in the country after netting nine times in 12 games for Sunderland so far this campaign.
He broke into the Black Cats’ side last season as the side were relegated from the Championship but offered a glimpse of a potentially bright future in the third tier.
After starting his youth career off at Manchester City, he joined the North-East club as he moved into Under-18s level.
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With Sunderland currently third in League One and looking like strong candidates for promotion at the first attempt, Maja will now have a choice to make regarding his future.
Top-flight clubs are now interested in his services and he will have to decide whether to accept the offer of regular game-time in the lower divisions or limited first-team appearances further up.
Getting youth players into the first-team set-up has certainly been tricky for Saints recently. Players such as Harrison Reed and Sam McQueen have had to go out on-loan this season in order to get regular games.
Clubs are also stuck in a system of buying proven players – often from Europe – instead of promoting the youth talents that they have worked so hard to nurture.
Whilst the striker department at Saints hasn’t been the most fruitful in the past two seasons, Maja would most likely find it hard to break into the set-up in and around Danny Ings, Charlie Austin, Manolo Gabbiadini and Shane Long.
Sam Gallagher has been kept at the club despite very limited opportunities, whilst Ryan Seager looks to have no future at St Mary’s after being shipped out to Dutch second-tier club Telstar for the season.