The £25m wonderkid at the middle of a bidding war between Aston Villa and Fulham

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Aston Villa and Fulham have been linked with a summer swoop for a teenage Euro 2024 star - but is he ready for the top level?

As Premier League clubs hunt for some firepower up front this summer, a couple of teams seem set to turn towards the future – according to a new report, both Aston Villa and Fulham are lining up bids for teenage Beşiktaş striker Semih Kiliçsoy, who made Turkey’s squad for Euro 2024 at the tender age of 18 and who is regarded as one of his country’s brightest prospects.

Sport Witness have picked up on local media sources who state that both sides have made bids – all rejected so far - for the 18-year-old, who scored 12 goals in 30 games last season and who has earned three caps for the Turkish national team, including a substitute appearance against the Netherlands in their European Championship quarter-final. But is he up for the challenge of scoring goals in the Premier League?

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Able to play as a central striker but more often deployed by his club down the left wing, Kiliçsoy is a tricky, direct player who isn’t exceptionally quick but who does have the guile and dribbling skills to beat players on the run and the off-ball movement to find a half-yard of space in the box, but it’s his powerful shooting that has really stood out in the early part of his career.

A rare forward who is capable of striking the ball with power and precision with both feet, Kiliçsoy has scored several of his goals with some absolutely ferocious finishing, firing the ball past and on a couple of occasions straight through the goalkeeper with sheer force. Unafraid to take shots on from narrow angles or from distance, he has scored some spectacular goals and caught ‘keepers by surprise on more than a few occasions.

The 11 goals he scored in the Turkish Süper Lig came at an xG of just 5.59, which is both a testament to the excellence of some of the strikes and also to a couple of efforts which sharper goalkeepers might have saved, either at the near post or one on occasion in slippery conditions when a rain-sodden ball skimmed in through the goalkeeper’s hands. His goalscoring exploits so far are a testament to both his willingness to take chances and, perhaps, a little bit of luck.

He does have some areas to work on, of course – his first touch can let him down and he lacks aerial presence at a 5’11”, and can be pushed around at times by more experienced defenders who don’t give him the space to shoot or unfurl his dribbling talents, but when he can engineer the chance to run at defenders he becomes extremely hard to defend against. Drop deep and he will have room for a shot, but step up and he can absolutely take on and beat his man on the run.

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It’s not yet clear whether his relatively modest pace will be an issue in the long term – it would certainly help him to be a better winger and a better striker off the shoulder of the last man if he did have a little extra speed in his boots, but as it is he will have to develop the extra bit of canniness and the understanding of how to outwit defenders instead. As long as he has that shooting power, however, it seems likely that his future is as a central striker.

The question, of course, is whether or not his future is in England. Aston Villa reportedly offered a combination of cash and a year’s loan of left-back Alex Moreno, which was rejected, while Fulham are claimed to have come in with a bid of €20m (£16.8m), also turned down flat. Beşiktaş, apparently, want closer to €30m (£25.2m).

That’s a big fee for a player who can’t be said to be proven at the top level yet. Kiliçsoy has said his idol is Sergio Agüero, and with a little refinement of his game he might even be a player worthy nof that comparison, but there is a way to go and he can’t be expected to repay that fee in the first couple of years. But if either Aston Villa or Fulham do pull the trigger, we can expect at least a handful of truly spectacular goals as a result.

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