Sunderland looking to seal transfer agreement for 21-year-old | OneFootball

Sunderland are currently in talks with Standard Liege over a potential move for defender Moussa Sissako, according to L’Equipe journalist Loic Tanzi.

It is understood that another unnamed club is also looking to sign Sissako.

The defender was the subject of transfer interest from Burnley earlier this summer.

However, Sissako could not agree terms with the Clarets who have bolstered their options at centre-back in the current transfer window by signing Luke McNally, CJ Egan-Riley and Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

Sunderland are now looking to reach a breakthrough in their pursuit of the 21-year-old who has yet to make an appearance for Standard this season.

During the previous campaign, Sissako featured on 19 occasions for the Belgian outfit in the Jupiler Pro League.

The defender also played three games for Standard in the Belgian Cup.

Whereas Sunderland have already swooped for Daniel Ballard and Aji Alese this summer, the former of the two defenders sustained a foot injury in the club’s recent clash with Queens Park Rangers.

As a result of this issue, Ballard is set to be forced to watch on from the sidelines for the foreseeable future.

In the absence of Ballard, Sunderland will be looking to secure all three points in their showdown with Stoke City in the Championship tomorrow.

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The Verdict

If this report turns out to be true, it will be interesting to see whether Sunderland are able to make some progress when it comes to this particular pursuit.

Yet to make an appearance in the Championship during his career, it may take Sissako some time to adapt to life at this level if he does make the move to the Stadium of Light.

Whereas the defender only averaged a WhoScored match rating of 6.59 in the Jupiler Pro League last season, there is no reason why Sunderland head coach Alex Neil cannot further his development as he has managed to get the best out of most of the players that he currently has at his disposal.

When you consider that another team is also interested in Sissako, Sunderland will need to move quickly in order to have the best chance of securing the services of the centre-back.