According to transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano, Mark Flekken is entering his final weeks in the Bundesliga. The Italian journalist reports that English club Brentford is on the verge of signing the goalkeeper from SC Freiburg.
The current 9th-placed team in the Premier League is in need of a new first-choice goalkeeper as Spanish player David Raya is set to depart in the summer. "Mark Flekken will be his replacement," Romano reports on Twitter. "The deal was almost finalized on Monday; Brentford is willing to agree to a five-year contract."
Romano also reveals the transfer fee that the English mid-table team will pay for the Dutch goalkeeper. The club is set to transfer €13 million to Freiburg, who are already guaranteed a fifth-place finish in the Bundesliga but hope to climb further in the last two rounds to secure a spot in the Champions League. This amount matches Flekken's release clause, which Brentford will be utilizing.
Flekken has been playing for Freiburg since 2018, with the team achieving respectable sixth and fifth-place finishes in the Bundesliga in recent years. In 2009, the goalkeeper was recruited by Alemannia Aachen from Roda JC's youth academy, and he later joined Greuther Fürth and MSV Duisburg before his current club. In March 2022, Louis van Gaal granted him his debut for the Dutch national team, and he has since played in four matches. This places Flekken among the list of internationals who have never played in the Eredivisie, alongside players like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Jordi Cruyff.
