Atalanta close in on Duvan Zapata

Atalanta have come close to completing a deal for Sampdoria’s Duvan Zapata, according to L’Eco Di Bergamo.

It seems the club from Bergamo have beaten off competition from Jiangsu Suning to sign the Colombian striker, helped by the fact that the 27-year-old would strongly prefer to remain in the Serie A to moving to China.

The amount demanded by Sampdoria, around €20million, seemed like a significant obstacle at first, but the move made by Jiangsu Suning forced Atalanta’s hand and they are now willing to pay more than they initially intended in order to get the deal over the line.

Zapata only just made his move from Napoli to Sampdoria permanent, having played the whole of 2017/18 season at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on loan. Since signing for Napoli back in 2013, he played two seasons there before going to Udinese on loan, and after another two seasons in Udine he was loaned out Sampdoria last summer, with an option to buy.