Soccer: PSV rejects West Ham's $26M bid for USA's Ricardo Pepi

Jan. 30 (UPI) -- PSV rejected an initial loan-to-buy offer of $26 million from West Ham United for United States Men's National Team forward Ricardo Pepi.

Sources told ESPN, The Athletic and GOAL about the rejected bid Thursday. The offer was for an initial loan, with an obligation for a permanent transfer of the forward. The Premier League's January transfer window, which opened Jan. 1, closes Monday.

PSV is expected to submit a larger offer to acquire the striker, but director of football Earnie Stewart told GOAL earlier this month that he would not accept a transfer offer for Pepi.

"First and foremost, regarding all the transfer issues, I can take those off the table because there's not going to be a transfer," Stewart said. "That's one thing that's for sure. The way I look at Ricardo, and the way that we look at Ricardo, he has been fantastic in the way that he's developed himself as a player.

"When he came, one of the things that we were curious about, but also spoke about, was his positional game, what to do as a center-forward in certain situations, especially in tight situations. If you see where he was almost a year and a half ago up to where he is today, it's been amazing. He's really, really made some steps along the way."

Clubs in England and France are pursuing the 22-year-old forward. The transfer window closes Monday in France, Germany and Spain. The window closes Tuesday for clubs in Italy and the Netherlands and Feb. 11 for Turkish teams.

West Ham remains eager to sign a scorer after injuries to forwards Jarrod Bowen, Niclas Fullkrug and Michail Antonio.

Pepi scored 18 times in 25 games this season for PSV. He found the net 13 times in 33 career matches for the United States Men's National Team.