Crystal Palace can expect a considerable financial windfall if a Premier League club signs Lyon star Jake O’Brien.
Several clubs are interested in O’Brien, who could return to the Premier League in the summer and bring Crystal Palace a lot of money.
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The Eagles sold O’Brien last summer to Lyon, the French club owned by Palace co-owner John Textor.
According to the Daily Mail, the South London team had agreed to a 25 percent sell-on clause and Lyon have set the price for the 1.98 meter tall center-back at 15 million pounds.
West Ham are favourites to sign O’Brien, who made 32 appearances last season and scored five goals, three of them headers.
Everton and Borussia Dortmund are also said to be interested in the Irish international.
If Lyon achieve their asking price of £15 million, Palace would be entitled to 25 percent of that fee, which amounts to £3.75 million.
And that would be a welcome fee considering they sold the 23-year-old for £850,000 last August, a huge increase on their original fee.
O’Brien initially joined Palace on loan from Irish club Cork City in 2020 before his contract was finalized a year later.
However, he never played for the Eagles and was instead loaned to Swindon Town and Belgian team RWD Molenbeek.
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After an impressive season in the Challenger Pro League, Lyon signed the defender and his performances continued to improve.
West Ham are in desperate need of a defender this summer, with new head coach Julen Lopetegui having his eye on his old Wolves captain Max Kilman, but an initial offer was rejected.
If no deal is reached with Wolves, the Hammers will quickly turn to other targets – O’Brien is one of the top alternatives.
Everton also desperately need to strengthen their defence, with Ben Godfrey joining Atalanta this week and Mason Holgate expected to leave this summer.
This would leave the Toffees with just three centre-backs: Jarrad Branthwaite, Michael Keane and James Tarkowski. The latter duo are 31 years old, while the former has been linked with a move to Manchester United.