Tottenham target Moussa Dembele’s representatives have held transfer talks with Monaco about a summer switch from Fulham.
The 19-year-old forward - no relation to the Spurs midfielder who shares his name - is admired by both Spurs and Manchester United, who are keen to add a striker during this month’s transfer window. Liverpool are also interested.
Yet with Dembele out of contract at Fulham in the summer, he is now free to negotiate with foreign clubs and Standard Sport understands his agent met Monaco directors in Monte Carlo on Wednesday.
Dembele has a four-and-a-half-year deal on the table at Craven Cottage but it is becoming increasingly unlikely that he will sign it. In that case, Fulham would prefer to sell him this month, when they could expect to receive about £6m.
Yet Dembele is happy to run down his contract if the right offer does not arrive in this window. He is also said to be enthusiastic about the idea of joining Monaco, who have a record of improving young players.
Arsenal great Thierry Henry made his first strides in top-class football in the Principality, while Manchester United striker Anthony Martial last summer left Monaco to move to Old Trafford for a fee that could rise to £56m.
If Dembele moves abroad at the end of the campaign, Fulham would receive as little £300,000 under the FIFA transfer compensation system.
The rules in this country would yield a far higher fee for Fulham, as the case of Danny Ings proves. Ings could cost Liverpool up to £8m, even though he was out of contract at Burnley when he moved to Anfield, because he was under the age of 24 at the time of the transfer.
Dembele has scored 10 times for Fulham this season and has plenty of interest in Europe. Paris St Germain - the club he left to join Fulham in the summer of 2012 - are monitoring the situation, along with Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund.
Fulham are currently under a transfer embargo for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations, meaning they cannot sign players this month.
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It may be lifted in June but for that to happen, Fulham will need to prove they have stayed within an operating loss of no more than £3m, with a maximum of £3m of shareholder investment for the 2015-16 season. That will be easier to achieve if they sell Dembele now.
