Brighton have £10m bid for Shakhtar Donetsk centre-back Mykola Matviyenko rejected
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Brighton have a £10m offer for Shakhtar Donetsk centre-back Mykola Matviyenko turned down… and the Ukrainian club are demanding more than £20m
- Brighton have held talks with Shakhtar Donestk over defender Mykola Matviyenko
- They made an offer of £10 million, but the Ukrainian club turned it down.
- Shakhtar is seeking a fee of over £20m before letting him go
Brighton have been turned down an initial offer of £10m for Shakhtar Donetsk defender Mykola Matviyenko.
The south coast club have been in talks with their Ukrainian counterparts in recent days, as revealed by Sportsmail, and have now made a formal offer for the 26-year-old.
However, it seems they missed the player’s valuation from Shakhtar, who are expecting a fee in excess of £20m.
Brighton have made an initial offer for Mykola Matviyenko, but it has been turned down
Brighton manager Roberto Di Zerbi is eager to bring in defensive reinforcements this month.
Matviyenko was ever present at the heart of Shakhtar’s defense before Christmas, playing every minute of the team’s Champions League campaign.
He has made 150 appearances for the club and also has 54 caps to his name.
Brighton are eager to add cover in defense after losing Levi Colwill to injury last week.
The promising centre-back is expected to be out for up to six weeks with a muscle issue.
Brighton are currently without Levi Colwill, who is sidelined with a muscle problem.
Shakhtar already did business with a Premier League club this month after they sold winger Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea.
With Arsenal also showing interest in Mudryk, the Ukrainian team stood their ground and eventually got the fee they wanted before letting the 22-year-old walk away for £88m.
They also appear to be in a strong position when it comes to negotiating a fee for Matviyenko, who still has more than two years left on his current contract.