Plymouth Argyle are interested in signing defensive midfielder Malachi Boateng on a permanent deal from Scottish Premiership side Hearts, Plymouth Live understands.

The 22-year-old is a Crystal Palace academy product who left the Premier League club for Hearts last summer on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

Boateng has made 14 starts and six substitute appearances for Hearts in the Scottish Premiership this season. Argyle want to add to their central midfield options, which are currently limited to Adam Randell, Jordan Houghton and Darko Gyabi after the departure of Adam Forshaw in early January.

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Interestingly, Boateng played for Hearts in an away Europa Conference League game against Cercle Brugge at the end of November when Miron Muslic still at Belgian Pro League club so the Pilgrims' boss has seen him in action relatively recently.

The London-born midfielder is the younger brother of Hiram Boateng, who spent a lot of the 2015/16 season on loan to Argyle from Palace.

Argyle are looking to add to the four signings they have already made in the winter transfer window, following permanent deals for Michael Baidoo (Elfsborg) and Maksym Talovierov (LASK Linz) as well as loans for Tymoteusz Puchacz (Holstein Kiel) and Nikola Katic (FC Zurich).

Boateng did not play for Palace at first team level, although he did feature for the club's under-21s in three EFL Trophy group games in 2021. He went on to have season-long loan spells in Scotland with first Queens Park and then Dundee before making his move to Hearts last August.

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