Olympiakos’ strengthening in attack and the facts about Karansa

Olympiakos is looking at the international market to strengthen its personnel strength in January, with a focus on the positions of stopper, central midfielder (with a “6-8”) and center forward.

As we all know, the winter transfer season is not the easiest, the options are limited compared to the summer, but there are always opportunities and solutions.

When it comes to recruiting a center forward, Olympiakos’ decisions have proven successful in recent years. In the last four years, for example, the red and whites have been relaxed.

First with El Arabi and the past time with him Bakaboowhile the baton was now passed to Jovetic and to El Kaabi. However, the Piraeus team is still looking at strengthening the attack center and there are some considerations ahead of January.

Thoughts that arise, on the one hand, from the fact that El Kaabi will be absent with the Moroccan national team at the Africa Cup of Nations throughout January and the first ten days of February are not excluded, and on the other hand, from the fact that the African and Jovetic in his haven’t scored a goal in the last few games Olympiakou and at the same time El Arabi is not used.

The Red and Whites have him under their “microscopy”. Julian Carranza who they had been interested in last summer, but the Philadelphia Union had done it then reject their offer of 7,000,000 euros. At Olympiakos they have extensively scouted the Argentine striker, they have been watching him for over a year and think he fits into Martinez’s plans.

Of course, it is an expensive transfer in the sense that the Americans have high demands, but on the other hand, one must not forget that the Argentine’s contract now expires in a year – in December 2024.

This means that negotiations can be carried out on a different basis and the golden ratio can be found with mutual concessions. But here, too, it is obvious that the cost of such a transfer will be quite high, taking into account the footballer’s contract. The advantage in his case Carranza is that this is a striker who moves in a wide area and has great goal-scoring ability and is only 23 years old.

This means that it maintains a high resale value, with all the consequences for the club, unlike what has been the case before Olympic at El Arabi, Bakabou (who left as a free agent last summer) and now at Jovetic.

Carranza does not have an EU passport and has not played in Europe, but what matters is the quality and value of the player, as was the case with compatriots Ese and Ortega, which Olympiacos acquired a few months ago. The last two also had no experience of European competitions.

Carranza also knows that in the red and white he can coexist with three other compatriots (Ese, Ortega, Freire) and that this can play his role, but also that Ortega – now at Olympiakos – was invited by Scaloni to the Argentine national team .

The Argentine center forward has 38 appearances, 16 goals And 12 assists Despite his young age, he has totaled 169 games, 47 goals and 22 assists at a collective level in his career.

THE Julian Simon Carranza, as his full name is, took his first footballing steps at Banfield (48 games, 11 goals, 2 assists) and Inter Miami acquired him in the summer of 2019 for 5,500,000 euros (42 games, 3 goals). And in July 2022 he moved to Philadelphia Union (79 games, 33 goals, 20 assists).

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