Brighton sign striker Florin Andone for £5.25m

After a year long chase, Brighton and Hove Albion have got their man following the £5.25m capture of striker Florin Andone from Deportivo La Coruna.

The Albion were interested in the Romanian International both last summer and in January, but Deportivo’s asking prices of nearly £17m back in 2017 and £15m proved a stumbling block to any deal.

The Spanish sides recent relegation out of La Liga however means that the buyout clause in Andone’s contract was slashed to £6m, which Chris Hughton has decided to trigger to boost his striking options. A saving of £11m appears to make the deal an absolute bargain.

Andone can either play as a number nine or in a front two, suggesting he is a more expensive, less injury prone version of Sam Baldock who doesn’t look like Ed Miliband. He has signed a five year deal and will officially become an Albion player on June 8th.

Born in Romania, Andone moved to Spain at the age of 12 after his father died in a car accident. He has spent his entire career in Spain, representing Club Deportivo Castellón, Villareall C’s team and Atlético Baleares where he had a breakthrough season on loan, netting 12 goals in 34 games.

That earned him a move to Cordoba for whom he scored 26 times in 56 games with his next stop being Deportivo La Coruna, who paid around £3m for him in the summer of 2016. That was the most that Depor had spent on a player for nine seasons and he was handed the clubs iconic number 10 jersey.

He scored 12 goals in his first season at Depor and won La Liga Player of the Month for December 2016 while last season was less successful with only six goals as his side were relegated from the top flight.

Andone has 21 caps for Romania and has netted once for his country and played in all three of their games at Euro 2016.