Dutch giants, Ajax Amsterdam have reached agreement with Japanese defender, Ko Itakura for a move this summer, Softfootball reports.
The Eredivisie giants who narrowly missed out on the title on the final day of last season to PSV, sold academy graduate Jorrel Hato to Chelsea and identified Itakura as a perfect replacement.
According to German football expert, Florian Plettenberg via his official X handle, the club Borussia Mönchengladbach has accepted terms but the club are yet to give a greenlight to the deal.
He said:
“Ko #Itakura has reached a full agreement with Ajax Amsterdam!
“The 28-y/o centre-back has agreed to a four-year deal with an option for a fifth. He would earn around €2–3m net per year in Amsterdam.
“#Ajax and Borussia Mönchengladbach are still negotiating the transfer fee – a decision is expected by midweek.”
Interestingly, Itakura joined Manchester City in 2019 but was immediately loaned out to Groningen, until the summer of 2020. The Dutch club then gave him another year.
However, he did not stay there as he moved to Schalke 04 on a season-long loan in August 2021. But the Bundesliga 2 outfit had an option to make the move permanent for £5 million. Despite helping them gain promotion, he was not signed permanently by the club due to financial reasons.
He moved to Mönchengladbach in 2022 and has since developed into a better player where he scored his first goal in the Bundesliga against Augsburg in August 2023 and on September 2, scored a goal against Bayern Munich. On September 8th, he was selected as the team’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) for August.
Ajax is a traditional Dutch team and one of the biggest. The pressure of playing week-in, week-out will be there, especially as he needs to live up to the expectations of Hato, who left for FIFA Club World Cup champions, Chelsea this summer.
