Crystal Palace set to sign Ajax defender in £7.5m deal

Crystal Palace manager Frank de Boer is poised to raid former club Ajax for the signature of Jairo Riedewald in a deal worth £7.5m, reports The Guardian.

The Eagles, who announced Ruben Loftus-Cheek as their first summer signing on loan from Chelsea, have reached an agreement in principle with Ajax and are now free to discuss personal terms with the 20-year-old.

De Boer was responsible for giving Riedewald his Ajax debut back in 2013 and he was tipped for a promising career before dropping completely out of favour at the Dutch club under Peter Bosz last season.

Marc Overmars, Ajax’s sporting director, has given the green light for Palace to proceed with the transfer, although it remains to be seen whether any other Premier League clubs will step up their interest in the versatile Dutch defender.

Palace have been forced to abandon their attempt to make Mamadou Sakho’s stint at the club permanent after Liverpool were firm in their £30m valuation and now appear to have turned to Riedewald, who can also play at left-back and in central midfield.

Riedewald only started 11 league games last season but did feature more prominently in their Europa League run to the final where he played in seven of their 15 matches. In fact, no Ajax player that started a game in their Europa League campaign had a better pass success rate than Riedewald (89.7%).

For more stats on Jairo Riedewald, click here to visit his WhoScored player page