Sunderland and Beşiktaş are both in the race to sign Lazio striker Libor Kozak according to Calcio News. Kozak has fallen out of favor with Lazio manager Vladimir Petkovic and is not in the Bosnian manager's plans for the coming season. Beşiktaş are reported to have offered the Czech Republic striker a loan bid with the right to sign outright however, had the proposal was reportedly rejected by President Claudio Lotito. Sunderland meanwhile are interested in putting forwards a €6 million offer. Black Cats boss Paolo di Canio has been on a signing spree this summer bringing in nine transfers and he recently said one or two more players would be required. Di Canio said, "Obviously we know the board knows that we need something more. But I don't know if it's possible at the moment. "We have already made some good signings and the club has made some sacrifices in some ways, they have spent some money. "So I am happy, but obviously it would be better to bring in one or two other players, but we will see." The Czech Republic international joined Lazio from SFC Opava on a €1.2 million move in 2008. Kozak scored 10 goals for the Biancocelesti in 2012/13, all of which coming in the Europa League. got legs this imho [video]http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Libor+Kozak[/video]
This ones back Several players have been linked to Sunderland this summer and some of these rumours are true and some others are nothing more than a product of the media’s twisted mind. The Black Cats’ manager, the irreverent Paolo Di Canio, is trying to implement his own style and mentality on the team and he wants new players in whom he can trust. Last season, he had several problems with some former Sunderland players and it is likely that in this campaign he does not want to go through that once again. The most recent player linked to Sunderland is a very interesting Czech forward from SS Lazio called Libor Kozak. This Czech forward is 24 years old and he has been in Italy since 2008 and things have not been easy for him. After a first season with very few appearances, in 2009 he went on loan to Brescia (Serie B) in order to have more first team football. He had some good performances with Brescia and after his loan he returned to SS Lazio and things started to turn out better for him. He scored some goals and put up some convincing performances and he even managed to gain the trust of the Czech National Team’s manager. Last season was a very good period for him. Libor Kozak will surely never forget the 2012-2013 UEFA Europa League campaign. He scored 10 goals in 11 matches and he performed brilliantly. He was the competition top scorer. Some pundits were constantly accusing him of having poor finishing skills, but were, in fact, left stranded by Kozak’s performances at the UEFA competition. On an entirely different note, in the Serie A, however, he failed to score a goal in 18 matches. Libor Kozak is not a very known striker among fans, but he is in fact a very interesting player that probably just needs to work on his motivation levels in order to become a great player. In 2008, the 6’3 Czech forward was in England on trial at Portsmouth, but he failed to convince the Pompey managerial staff back then. According to the Turkish press, Sunderland is preparing a £6 million bid for him after they learnt that SS Lazio’s board rejected a season-long loan offer from the Turkish side of Besiktas. Paolo Di Canio surely still has some friends at SS Lazio, which might ease the player’s transfer to the Black Cats. http://www.ftbpro.com/posts/joel.amorim/321905/libor-kozak-is-on-paulo-di-canio-s-shortlist
