West Ham Close to Christian Benitez Deal

West Ham United is now very close to complete the signing of Ecuadorian striker Christian Benitez. The 24-year-old spent the last season at Birmingham City, on loan from Mexican club Santos Laguna.

Despite his poor scoring rate as he netted just 4 goals in 36 appearances for Birmingham, his performance was pretty much satisfactory.

West Ham United was initially keen to sign Yakubu from Everton, but the Merseyside club showed no intention to sell the Nigerian striker. Now, West Ham has turned their focus on Christian Benitez who is also known as Chucho.

Santos Laguna has valuated the player at £7 million. Birmingham found the amount too high to make the deal permanent, but West Ham is pretty much interested to land Benitez at the Upton Park. However, the Hammers have asked the Mexican club to lower their asking price for the striker.

Though he could not score many goals for Birmingham, Benitez has a very good scoring rate with Santos Laguna. With his Mexican club, he has scored 31 goals in 58 appearances in the Mexican league.

West Ham United is now all set to bolster its attacking line up ahead of the next season. The club finished just a place above the relegation zone with 35 points last season.