And according to the Express & Star, Albion have fended off competition from Championship rivals Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday to land the 24-year-old on a free transfer.

Maja, who made his name at Sunderland before making the move to France with Bordeaux in 2019, scored 17 times in all competitions last season for the Ligue 2 outfit and will now return to England to bolster Carlos Corberan’s attack, with just Brandon Thomas-Asante the only fit central striker option the Spaniard has to choose from.

Corberan lost Daryl Dike for most of 2023 back in April when he ruptured his achilles against Stoke City last season, but despite that blow he still allowed Karlan Grant to depart for Cardiff City on loan earlier this summer.

He now has his competition for Thomas-Asante though in what will be a big boost ahead of their opening match of the season against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

Who is Josh Maja?

After spending time at multiple academies as a teenager, including those of Crystal Palace, Fulham and Man City, Maja settled at Sunderland in 2015 before turning professional at the Stadium of Light a year later.

Maja made his senior debut later on in 2016 for the Black Cats but his real chance came in the 2017-18 season when Sunderland were in the Championship as he featured 17 times in the second tier with a mixture of starts and substitute appearances.

Scoring just the once in that time period, Maja really stepped up in League One in the first half of the 2018-19 campaign when he fired in 15 goals in 24 matches, but with his contract set to expire at the end of that season, he took the chance to move to Bordeaux in January 2019 in a deal worth £3.5 million with add-ons.

Maja never really fully fired in the top flight of French football, scoring just the nine goals in 47 appearances, and he made two separate loan returns to England in 2021 and 2022 with Fulham and Stoke City respectively, but these yielded just 5 goals in 32 outings.

The 24-year-old however did find his feet in Ligue 2 for Bordeaux last season, scoring 16 times and adding another goal to his tally in the Coupe De France, but he departed at the end of the 2022-23 season and will now take a chance once again in the Championship.

Where will Josh Maja fit in at West Brom?

With Corberan favouring a lone striker system with the Baggies, it will be expected that Maja will be a bench option for now whilst he finds his feet.

Thomas-Asante will likely lead the line as he has been doing in pre-season but in the second half, Maja can provide fresh legs and impetus and perhaps goals too.

The one-time Nigeria international hasn’t had the best scoring record in his career so far since leaving Sunderland, but he now has a chance to prove himself in the second tier of English football