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Bierhoff ponders Ł2.4m Fulham approach
Friday 13th July 2001
Oliver Bierhoff is weighing up a move to Fulham after the newly-promoted Premiership side offered Ł2.4 million for the AC Milan striker.
Bierhoff is out of favour at the San Siro, and is desperate to play regularly as he looks to keep himself in the reckoning for Germany's 2002 World Cup squad. But Fulham, who missed out on signing Jan Koller earlier this summer, face competition for Bierhoff from West Ham.
"I've had a Ł2.4 million offer from Fulham and they have guaranteed me first-team football," the 33-year-old revealed. "If I want to achieve my goal of playing in next year's finals, the there's no point wassting time sitting on the bench in Milan," the former Germany skipper added.
"I'm very tempted by the idea of playing in the Premiership and I am giving the offer my full consideration."
Bierhoff had been linked with a move to Brescia, where he would have linked up with Italy veteran Roberto Baggio, but that move fell through when the Lombardy club snapped up Ł9 million striker Luca Toni from Vicenza.
However, West Ham are also prepared to match Bierhoff's Ł30,000 a week wage demands, according to reports in England.
Bierhoff is the archetypal target man. Big and strong, he is one of the best headers of a ball, and, although he lacks pace, his finishing ability cannot be doubted.
His career, which had puttered along at Hamburg and Bayer Uerdingen took off when he joined Internazionale as a boy after his father, a successful German industrialist, convinced his business partner, then Inter chairman Ernesto Pellegrini, to buy him.
Pellegrini, figuring he had just bought his friend's mediocre footballing son, shipped him off to Ascoli on loan and then renounced Inter's rights to the player. It was a decision he would come to regret. Bierhoff soon established himself as one of Italy's most feared strikers first at Ascoli, then at Udinese, where Alberto Zaccheroni helped him reach his full potential.
He led Germany to success at Euro 96 (scoring two goals in the final against the Czech Republic, including the decisive Golden Goal), and now captains them. He was Serie A's top scorer in 1997-98 with Udinese, and got 18 in Milan's Scudetto winning season in 1998-99.