Southampton: Saints express interest in signing young Ghana forward

Southampton are reportedly tracking young Ghana forward Issah Abass after narrowly missing out on him back in 2018.

This is according to a exclusive report from kickgh.com, who state that Saints have enquired about the availability of the 21-year-old.

Abass is back with his parent club Mainz after spending the 2019/20 season on-loan with FC Utrecht in the Eredivisie.

The Dutch campaign was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but Abass made his mark whilst football was still being played.

20 senior games yielded five goals and two assists for the Ghana Under-23 international, who also netted three times for Utrecht’s Under-21 side during his temporary spell in the Netherlands.

Whilst his numbers from this year are not extraordinary, Saints have clearly seen something in him that they like if this report is to be believed.

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The 2017/18 campaign is perhaps when he started to appear on the radar at St Mary’s.

Playing for NK Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia, he scored 12 goals in 35 games whilst playing as a striker and also showed an ability to play as a winger if required.

The kickgh.com report then states that they missed on signing him when Mainz secured his signature for around €2m.

Saints have had great success when signing African players who have started to make their name in Europe.

Sadio Mane and Victor Wanyama proved to be superb signings from Red Bull Salzburg and Celtic respectively and were sold on after impressing on the South Coast.

Moussa Djenepo looks to be another player of real potential having arrived at the beginning of the 2019/20 campaign and providing some glimpses of real attacking intelligence in his play.

One example in Emmanuel Mayuka didn’t pay off, but perhaps Abass can be the latest deceptive forward to be brought in by the club.

He would potentially be available for a smaller fee than other players and could prove good value if Saints see him rising to become a force in the Premier League.

However, a move for him does still seem like a risk before he really makes a substantial mark in a big European league.