Massawud Alhassan to join Udinese?

Massawud Alhassan will officially join Udinese after Christmas after Antonio Floro Flores was finally transferred from Udinese to Genoa.

The deal was originally set at getting Udinese to acquire the full rights on Alhassan but in the end, the two clubs had to settle for 50% ownership of the 20-year old.

Like Alhassan, German Alexander Merkel triggered the whole flurry of transfers deals by accepting to sign for Udinese from Genoa as make-weight to the Flores transfer which cost Genoa some ?3.5m.

Genoa's failure to pay up meant Udinese could choose to do co-ownership deals on some of Genoa's players. Merkel initially loathed the idea of being make-weight to the deal but would finally accept he had little or no options left while Alhassan had already agreed to move from Novara where he is on loan from Genoa.

Alhassan was initially billed to remain at Novara for the rest of the season so he could start his Udinese career at the start of the 2013 season but that changed when the deal was being finalized.

This means that the two players, both 20, will be co-owned by the two clubs but will join Udinese in the winter transfer window.

This will make Alhassan the second Ghanaian in the current Udinese team after Emmanuel Agyeman Badu.