Who Is Krasnodar’s Fedor Smolov and What Would He Bring to Borussia Dortmund?

January 1 and, with it, the opening of the transfer window is rapidly approaching; the start of the silly season is almost upon us.

For fans of Borussia Dortmund, that will most likely mean a month of speculation surrounding players such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Christian Pulisic, even though it is out of the question that the Ruhr side will let go of either.

It could still be an active time for the club’s decision-makers, though. There are a few players who could leave the Westfalenstadion after only playing small roles during the first half of the season, be it Neven Subotic, Nuri Sahin or Shinji Kagawa.

They also have to look at bringing in reinforcements, given their up-and-down campaign to this point. With a tricky away fixture against unbeaten 1899 Hoffenheim scheduled for Friday, the sixth-placed Black and Yellows could spend the winter break outside of the UEFA Champions League spots in the Bundesliga.

As suggested in an earlier piece, a midfielder such as Mahmoud Dahoud could help the team’s woes in possession, while Dortmund could also try to sign a centre-back to remedy some defensive frailties.

A position that does not register as too high a priority for the winter window is striker, but, somewhat curiously, the hottest transfer rumour revolves around Dortmund’s front line: FC Krasnodar’s Fedor Smolov has been linked to the Westfalenstadion for a while.

The 26-year-old fuelled those rumours earlier in December, appearing on Russian TV channel Match TV. “There is one team for which I would be willing to leave Krasnodar in the winter,” he said, per Manuel Veth of Futbolgrad.com, adding that it is a team from Germany.

Russian sport paper Championat (h/t Toke Theilade of RussianFootballNews.com) reported Dortmund are close to sealing the deal, albeit with Smolov only moving to the club after the end of the season. 

Leading media in Germany have yet to pick up on the story, casting some doubt on the veracity of the reports from Russia, but Smolov is too interesting a player to discard the rumour just like that.

Here, Bleacher Report takes a look at what the striker would bring to the Westfalenstadion.

Positional Fit at Dortmund

Aubameyang and Adrian Ramos represent perhaps the best one-two punch of strikers in the Bundesliga. The Gabonese has been on fire this season, scoring 19 goals in 20 appearances across all competitions.

While Ramos is often viewed with some scrutiny by the club’s fanbase, the Colombian has been a solid contributor under head coach Thomas Tuchel when used as a striker and not on the wings. The former Hertha BSC forward has scored three goals in seven starts this season and assisted Marco Reus’ vital equaliser against Cologne on the weekend.

However, Ramos will turn 31 on January 22 and was reportedly close to moving to China in the winter window of last season until the Ruhr side pulled the plug on a transfer, per Thomas Hennecke of sport …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com