Turkish Süper Lig clubs Besiktas JK and Galatasaray SK have reportedly joined English Premier League side Southampton FC in the race for the signature of Wolfsburg striker Bas Dost.
Rumors went out last month that the Saints are targeting Dost as new head coach Claude Puel is looking to upgrade his attacking options for next term.
Currently, Puel only has Shane Long, Jay Rodriguez, and Charlie Austin at his disposal after the club sold forwards Graziano Pellè, Sadio Mané, and Juanmi to Shandong Luneng, Liverpool, and Real Sociedad respectively for a combined estimated profit of £48 million.
The French manager badly needs to reinforce his squad if he wants to continue Ronald Koeman's success after the St. Mary's Stadium residents finished seventh and sixth overall in the English top flight during the past two seasons.
Besiktas, the reigning Turkish domestic first division champions, are said to be interested in signing Dost this summer after the team learned that the German Bundesliga outifit had recently rejected Southampton's undisclosed bid for the 27-year-old Dutch striker.
Dost's agent, Mihat Halis, had disclosed that the Istanbul-based football club "have made an inquiry" about the 6-foot-5 Deventer, Netherlands native, according to a Turkish Football article. The agent continued to reveal that Besiktas' fellow Süper Lig rival Galatasaray is also in the hunt at the moment.
"Galatasaray are interested, so are Besiktas and Southampton but the question is how serious are they. There are no offers on the table and the decision is of course up to Wolfsburg," said Halis, who is employed by the Stars & Friend management company.
Meanwhile, Caught Offside noted that Lions head coach Jan Olde Riekerink is keen on adding Dost to his squad this summer as he aims "to strengthen their (Galatasaray) forward line" next season after losing Burak Yilmaz to Beijing Guoan in January.
However, Wolfsburg is said to be not ready to let go of their prized goalscorer as they are "in a strong financial position and under no pressure to sell" Dost any time soon.
Dost scored eight goals in 22 appearances in the German top flight competitions last term. Overall, he netted 10 times in 31 games for Die Wölfe as he finished his fourth season with the club.