Josh Maja has returned to Craven Cottage on loan from Bordeaux for the remainder of the season, Fulham have confirmed tonight.
The 22 year-old had a spell in Fulham’s academy as a teenager before moving on to Manchester City and then Sunderland. Maja’s first professional goal was the winner against Fulham at the Stadium of Light in December 2017 as the Black Cats, then managed by former Fulham boss Chris Coleman won their first home league game for 364 days. The Lewisham-born striker scored 16 goals in 30 appearances before joining Bordeaux in January 2019 after refusing to extend his Sunderland contract and has found the net 11 times in 49 games for the French side.
Maja has scored twice in seventeen appearances for Bordeaux this year – eleven of them from the substitutes’ bench – and spoken previously of his desire to play Premier League football. The Nigerian international, whose only cap at senior level came as a late substitute against Ukraine last September, would be available for a fee of around £8.80m in the summer under the terms of the loan deal.
Maja told the club’s official website:
I’m really excited and proud to sign for Fulham on loan for the remainder of the season. This is a big opportunity and I look forward to meeting up with the team and working hard to achieve positive results.”
Wow! Thank you so much Tony. You are amazing!
There’s nobody better than you at this transfer game. Seriously, what you do is just awesome!
You have a whole month to do something positive to enable us to stay in the Premiership but, yet again, you prove that you are a true master of suspense by keeping us on tenterhooks as we drop 12 points-yes 12 points- during the time that the window was open.
Then, genius move this, you lead us all to believe, via your manager, Scott Parker, that there will be no signing due to financial restraints.
Yet, all this time, you had this ace up your sleeve-you cunning old dog, you.
But you weren’t finished there.
We are led to believe that there will be another striker incoming also with the King rumours flying around.
Ultimately, that didn’t happen. I am paying no attention to those who seek to disparage you by saying that that was all a smokescreen intended to show us that you really do have our best interests at heart. Nor do I pay heed to those who say that the King rumour was just that- a rumour to show Bordeaux that you had other options and to get Maja’s signature on paper.
What do they know?
You kept us guessing right up to the deadline too. Brilliant stuff!
Of course, you know that, suddenly, our one striker, Mitro, has had a return to form, don’t you? Yes, it happened the other day, apparently. You might be a day or two behind on our news seeing as you are so far, far away.
So just to let you know, it is highly doubtful that Scott Parker will play with TWO strikers. God forbid!
So just where this Maja fits in is a real enigma. Whether all of your fantastic transfer efforts will actually help us stay up remains to be seen.
Still, that’s neither here nor there.
We applaud you, oh Great One!
Just listened to Tony Khan interview and he certainly shed more light on the complicated issues around the transfer window.
Fair play.
Also interesting to hear that Scott Parker was an advocate of the Maja signing.
So, I am prepared to eat humble pie and apologise for my earlier post.
He even admitted to making many mistakes in the summer transfer window of two seasons ago.
I would have loved to know more about what happened with the King transfer but, for the moment, I apologise for being so critical.
Could Scott Parker be preparing to launch a two pronged striking force against Leicester? The 2 Ms?
Easy to have a pop at T Khan but no one knows what the real situation is regarding transfers outside the club hardly any Premier clubs picked up players and what they did are mostly loans so I will not judge especially during this current Pandemic
Was not impressed at first but then I read too that Parker wanted Maja . If true then hopefully its a good move . We have all been pleasantly surprised by many of summer deals so lets see … but I feel its the return to form of Mitro that will stop the drop.
I am so dissalusioned by Khans pathetic late deals that I cannot be bothered to read the exx uses anymore.
Why is everything done too late to make a chance of saving us from religation when he has wasted several weeks that has cost us points and we will most probably now be relegated once again !!
So thank you Tony Khan . I am sure you will enjoy your summer break whilst us Fulham fans look forward to another season back in the championship.
Players do get injured and Mitro has missed games this season through injury. So we do need cover. I always thought AK was not a genuine no 9 apart from just not being up to Premiere league standard.
I dunno how Josh Maja is gonna fit it? On the one hand he is a combination of Mitro, Lookman and BDR based upon footage of his game time and on the other you have his stats from Bordeaux, which don’t actually look that great… Josh Maja looks to be an impact sub at most. Those who are interested in stats… His expected goal (xD) rate is 2.24 for the season, which isn’t an awful lot. Conversion rate is 11%. Pass success rate 88% and most of his goals tend to be from outside the box.
I’d say he’s a Nigerian Knockhaert.