Jakub Kiwior to stay at Spezia, turns down West Ham

Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock

Reports emerged yesterday afternoon in Italy that Spezia had received a €12 million bid from West Ham for 22 year-old defender Jakub Kiwior.

Before the end of the day, however, it was reported by Santi Aouna of French outlet FootMercato that Kiwior has rejected the opportunity to move to the Premier League, instead choosing to spend one more season at Spezia.

Kiwior, twice-capped for the Polish national team, made 22 appearances in Serie A last season and had a run of particularly good form around January, which enabled him to stay regularly in the starting line-up for the rest of the season.

This guarantee of regular football is allegedly the chief reason why Kiwior has turned down West Ham, on account of the upcoming World Cup.

Kiwior has a good chance of being called up by Czesław Michniewicz, given he had very respectable performances in the last Nations League games, including the 2-2 draw against Holland in Rotterdam.

Both Spezia and Kiwior think that this season will be his last for the club. AC Milan, Napoli and Bayer Leverkusen have all been named as interested clubs, with Milan’s supposedly being the most concrete.

Spezia are more than happy to retain Kiwior’s services for one more season. They are hopeful that another strong season, as well as the possibility of him playing in the World Cup, may drive up the asking price for him next summer.

As well as Kiwior, there are two other Polish internationals at Spezia, Arkadiusz Reca and new signing Bartłomiej Drągowski, so they are definitely a team to keep an eye on if you’re interested in who might be called up to play for Poland the World Cup.

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