Arminia Bielefeld close to landing big fish in Japan's Ritsu Doan
Reliable sources confirm that the newly-promoted club are close to completing a deal with PSV Eindhoven to land a promising attacker on loan.
Newly-promoted Arminia Bielefeld will certainly need all of the help they can get should they wish to stay in Germany’s top flight this season. The Bundesliga’s quintessential yo-yo-club has been either promoted or relegated sixteen times over the course of the last 25 years.
Now back in the Bundesliga after a twelve-year-absence, die Arminnen, like virtually every other small market/low budget promoted side, have sought to bolster their squad with a plethora of promising free-transfers. Uwe Neuhaus and the board have also picked up young Colombian striker Sergio Cordova on loan from FC Augsburg.
In a stunning development, it appears as if the club has a €10-million-valued player within their reach. Twenty-two-year-old Japanese striker Ritsu Doan, scorer of two goals in Samurai Blue’s surprise run to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Final, was conspicuously absent from a PSV Eindhoven preseason friendly against German side FC Viktoria Köln. The Dutch club confirm their young prospect is switching teams.
Dutch magazine “Voetbal International” reports that Bielefeld shall be his new team. Transfermarkt.de corroborates the rumor, appraising the likelihood of the deal at 87 percent. Doan apparently finds himself keen to transfer to less glamourous club after PSV manager Roger Schmidt intimated that he wasn’t in his plans for the coming season. In order to play for Japan’s Olympic squad next summer, Doan must find a club willing to give him ample playing time.
Doan has scored eighteen goals since moving to Dutch Eredivisie three years ago. While his production numbers have been somewhat inconsistent, he still attained some records when playing in the Netherlands. At FC Groningen, for example, he equaled Arjen Robben’s total tally of scoring eight goals for the club as a teenager.