Coveted Viking Winger headed to East London
West Ham's pursuit of Edvin Austbø looks to finally be reaching its conclusion. According to insider ExWHUEmployee on The West Ham Way, Viking FK have accepted West Ham's offer for the Norway Under-21 international, with the fee in the region of £10 million. The 21-year-old is now set to travel to London for a medical, with the move expected to be completed in the coming days. Nuno Espírito Santo's side take on Watford this afternoon in their bid for a first Championship win of the season.
This one has been a long time coming. West Ham's interest in Austbø has been an open secret for weeks, with an opening bid of around £8 million rejected by Viking earlier in the window before talks resumed as the September 1 deadline approached. Scouting reports consistently described the winger as a fast-paced, exciting prospect the club sees as capable of giving Nuno's attack a genuine edge. That assessment has clearly been enough for West Ham to come back with an improved offer that Viking were finally willing to accept.
Austbø was named the Eliteserien's Young Player of the Year after helping Viking win their first Norwegian league title in 34 years, contributing six goals and five assists in 27 league appearances that season. He's built a reputation as one of the most exciting dribblers in Norwegian football. He ranked first among all Eliteserien wingers for both dribbles attempted and completed per 90 minutes, while also chipping in a healthy return of accurate crosses into the box, the kind of direct, take-on-the-full-back profile Nuno has been short of since Crysencio Summerville's departure.
Just as importantly, the player has made no secret of wanting the move. Speaking to Stavanger Aftenblad earlier this month, Austbø admitted he'd been patient waiting for the right opportunity and made clear he wanted to move on if the right deal came along, describing West Ham as "a cool club" that was "certainly of interest" to him. That mutual desire on both sides appears to have been what finally got a fee agreed after weeks of negotiation.
With the medical still to be completed, this isn't quite over the line yet, but bid acceptance is normally the hardest part of any deal, and the presumption now is that formalities will be wrapped up quickly. If it goes through, Austbø becomes one of the more forward-looking signings of West Ham's window: a 21-year-old with genuine explosive quality, arriving not as a finished product but as a project Nuno and Nils Koppen clearly believe can grow into a real asset at London Stadium, whatever level the club is playing at when he does.
