Islam Slimani failed to establish himself a regular at Leicester City. (Getty Images)
According to Sky Sports, Leicester City could lose Islam Slimani for as little as £7.8million next summer, with Monaco holding the right to trigger the buyout clause in the striker’s loan agreement.
The 31-year-old, who joined Monaco on a season-long loan deal after helping Algeria to a triumphant campaign at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, has set Ligue 1 on fire with his blistering start to the season.
Slimani has already accumulated an impressive tally of 5 goals and 6 assists in 7 Ligue 1 appearances for Monaco this term, earning rave reviews for his excellent all-round displays in front of goal, but as per the report, Leicester City might be forced to part ways with him permanently for a rather thrifty sum of money.
Indeed, the aforementioned figure of £7.8million would be a massive bargain for Monaco, especially given the striker’s rich vein of form early in the season, but that would see the Foxes suffer a big loss, considering the fact that Slimani was once a club-record signing for £29million.
An impressive strike rate of 57 goals in 111 games for Sporting Lisbon in Portugal prompted Leicester City to shell out a staggering amount to bring the Algerian marksman to the Premier League back in the summer of 2016.
With Leicester’s incredible Premier League triumph in the 2015-16 season securing entry to the UEFA Champions League, Slimani was brought in to add more firepower to the club’s forward line but soon it became very clear that the Algerian didn’t have the pedigree to rack up goals on a consistent basis in the highly-competitive atmosphere of the Premier League.
Slimani netted 13 times in 46 appearances for the Foxes before being shipped out on loan to Newcastle United for the latter half of the 2017-18 campaign.
A mediocre loan stint at Fenerbahce in the following season paved the way for another temporary move to Monaco, and the writing was very much on the wall for the Algerian once the Foxes signed Ayoze Perez this summer.
Well, it is very clear that Islam Slimani doesn’t have a future at Leicester City and with that in mind, it wouldn’t be a bad deal for the Foxes to cut all ties with the Algerian permanently at the end of the season.
Slimani is set to turn 32 next summer and a fee of £7.8million, though relatively low for someone who is firing on all cylinders in the French top-flight, would certainly hand a boost to Leicester’s transfer kitty for the upcoming campaign, especially after a summer of heavy investment.
The Foxes need to cut their losses on the out-of-favour hitman as soon as possible, given that Brendan Rodgers doesn’t have him in his plans, and Slimani’s advancing years is only going to make it more difficult for Leicester to recoup a sizable portion of the money that they had spent on him three seasons back.
With Kelechi Iheanacho failing to live up to the expectations as the designated understudy to the prolific Jamie Vardy, Leicester certainly need funds to bring in a feasible alternative and cashing in on Slimani would certainly be a step in the right direction.
That said, Leicester should be happy with whatever little they manage to recoup from the sale of Islam Slimani next summer, as keeping him on the books for another season could see him walk away on a free transfer.
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