Hoffenheim target Liverpool striker Babel
By DPA, IANSTuesday, January 18, 2011
BERLIN - Hoffenheim are interested in signing Liverpool’s Dutch striker Ryan Babal, the Bundesliga club said.
According to Bild newspaper, Babel, 24, is at the German club for a medical test.
Hoffenheim are thought willing to pay seven million euros ($9.4 million) for the striker as a replacement for Demba Ba, who wants to leave the club.
Club manager Ernst Tanner confirmed Hoffenheim’s interest in Babel but said no deal had yet been reached.
“It’s not cut and dried by a long way,” he told the daily Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung.
“There are still details to be worked out. We are still a long way from an agreement.”
Bild quoted the club’s financial backer Dietmar Hopp as saying the club was in an “emergency situation” as a result of Ba’s likely exit and an injury to fellow striker Chinedu Obasi.
“Babel is one of the candidates our manager Ernst Tanner was most convinced about,” he said.
