Both clubs were interested in Ekitike over the summer, and Palace held talks with the 21-year-old.
When Palace rejected bids in August from Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig for Mateta and decided to stick with him as Odsonne Edouard’s understudy, Frankfurt became the frontrunners to sign Ekitike, though he remained at PSG where he has played just eight minutes of football so far this season.
Before approaching PSG over the possibility of signing Ekitike in the summer, Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho was top of Palace’s list of targets.
Meanwhile, West Ham are in the market for a new striker with Michail Antonio and Danny Ings – the club’s only out-and-out centre-forwards – not trusted to deliver a regular-enough supply of goals.
Ekitike remains a target for the Hammers, just as he was in the summer when technical director Tim Steidten travelled to Brazil to watch another player they were tracking – Corinthians’s Yuri Alberto, a one-time Brazilian international.
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