Brentford are close to completing the £22 million signing of Kevin Schade after the promising and rapid German talent passed his medical.
The west London club, who beat Liverpool 3-1 on Monday, had a second offer of about £17 million rejected in the summer and subsequently stepped up their pursuit of the 21-year-old Freiburg player, who can play as an attacking midfielder or winger.
Schade was clocked as one of the fastest players in Germany at 36.37km/h last season, behind Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies and Jeremiah St Juste, the Dutch defender who played for Mainz.
Playing in a 3-4-3 system, Schade scored seven goals and recorded two assists in all competitions before his first senior campaign was cut short by an abdominal injury in March. The injury should have sidelined him for six weeks but it required an operation and he therefore returned in September. He has since been involved in three goals across all competitions this season.
Freiburg have been unwilling to sell Schade, who has a contract until 2026 without an exit clause, but the player wants to move to the Premier League. He started playing at about the age of seven for SV Babelsberg 03 juniors before joining Energie Cottbus in 2014 and Freiburg in 2018. He has played for Germany Under 21, and is eligible for Germany and Nigeria.
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Ivan Toney, 26, is Brentford’s top scorer with 12 league goals this season but he has been charged with misconduct in relation to 232 alleged betting breaches in November and then a further 30 alleged breaches of FA betting rules in December.
