Poland international defender Bielik, 27, has been at St. Andrew’s for three seasons including an initial loan and has racked up in excess of 100 appearances.
Bielik has been identified as a target to help cover for the imminent exit of Torbjorn Heggem, who is to exit The Hawthorns and join Bologna in Italy for a deal worth up to £10million.
The club were keen to add depth, cover and competition to defensive options. Ryan Mason’s Albion already have summer recruits Nat Phillips and George Campbell as well as academy graduate Caleb Taylor as their centre-backs.
Bielik was made captain by the Blues following relegation from the Championship and played a leading role in the record-breaking League One title success from Chris Davies’ side last term.
Bielik is a versatile defender, capable of playing in the heart of the backline or in a full-back role, as well as in defensive midfield.
Club captain and well-respected at Blues, he follows a trend of the Baggies looking to add more experience and leadership to the club, something identified in Phillips, the first recruit of the summer from Liverpool.
Reports claim a move is worth in excess of £1m for Bielik, who has two years left to run on the contract he penned at Blues last summer.
Krystian Bielik while a youth prospect at Arsenal, who paid £2.5million to bring him from his native Poland as a 17-year-old. Bielik had a loan at Walsall in 2017/18 but he failed to make a single appearance for the Saddlers. (Photo: Joshjdss)
Bielik once cost Derby a fee reported to be in the region of £8m, possibly rising as high as £10m, when he left Arsenal to join the Rams in 2019.
He has endured two major knee injuries during his senior career, both coming in his time in the east Midlands at the beginning of 2020 and the start of 2021. The defender played just 49 times in three injury-hit seasons at Pride Park.
But he can an influential figure for Blues despite relegation and helped them make an immediate return. The Pole missed most of the final month of last season, including the EFL Trophy defeat to Peterborough at Wembley, with an unspecified injury.
Albion’s sale of Heggem to Bologna was important to help the club remain compliant with financial fair play’s profit and sustainability regulations while also further backing head coach Mason in the remaining two weeks of the transfer window.
The fee received for the Norwegian can be banked immediately on the club’s books, while transfer fees spent can be amortised over a period of a new incoming’s contract.