The Athletic's resident renowned English transfer journalist David Ornstein, exclusively reported on Saturday that the transfer of PSV Eindhoven's United States international striker Ricardo Pepi to Fulham is likely to fall through.

According to Ornstein, Fulham unexpectedly discovered abnormalities in Pepi's physical condition during his medical in London last week.

However, since he had just started for PSV Eindhoven in their Eredivisie match against Telstar at the time of the medical, Fulham questioned whether PSV had truthfully disclosed Pepi's injury.

Ornstein added that, given Pepi's injury, Fulham wanted to include a clause allowing them to cancel the transfer before his official arrival at the club, but PSV Eindhoven firmly rejected this agreement after the player had already completed his medical.

Without reaching a mutually satisfactory solution, the transfer of Pepi to Fulham is now highly likely to fall through.

Finally, Ornstein also revealed that Pepi himself expressed immense disappointment that the transfer might fall through and hoped for a turnaround so he could fulfill his dream of playing in the Premier League.

French media outlet L'Equipe reported on March 17th that Fulham had agreed to pay PSV Eindhoven €37 million to sign Pepi, and that the player had already reached an agreement with the club on personal terms.

About Ricardo Pepi

The 23-year-old Ricardo Pepi was born on January 9, 2003, in El Paso, Texas, USA. He is 1.85 meters tall and primarily plays as a center forward, but can also play as a right winger or right winger. He holds dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship.

Pepi joined El Paso's youth academy at age 4 and FC Dallas's at age 13. In March 2019, he played for FC Dallas's satellite team, North Texas, winning the USL championship.

In June of the same year, at just 16 years and 164 days old, Pepi completed his FC Dallas first-team debut by coming on as a substitute.

During his two-year spell with FC Dallas, Pepi quickly became a key player for the club with a high goal-scoring rate and was recognized as one of the most promising future stars in American soccer.

In January 2022, Pepi joined Augsburg for $20 million; however, his performances at the Bundesliga club did not reach his full potential.

On the summer transfer window deadline day of the same year, Pepi joined Groningen on-loan.

In July 2023, Pepi joined PSV Eindhoven for €9 million.

Since becoming a member of the Lampen, Pepi has made 95 appearances for PSV Eindhoven in all competitions, scoring 39 goals and providing 8 assists. During which he has won the Eredivisie title twice and the Johan Cruyff Shield (Dutch Super Cup) twice with the team.

Image source: Internet / L'Équipe