A stunning super-sub performance, assist and goal by Leicester City of England midfielder, Kelechi Iheanacho has sensationally found instant gain coming his way, as the out-of-favour lad has caught transfer attention from English Premier League newcomers, Aston Villa, megasportsarena.com reports.
Just two days after Iheanacho got off The Foxes’ bench to make history with his first EPL goal in 13 months the lad who has been left out of recent invitations to the Super Eagles’ camp is now said to be on the cards of a possible loan move to Villa in the January transfer window.
The Villans had a successful time with Nigerian-born striker, Tammy Abraham on their cards last season, with the lanky lad emerging top scorer in the English Championship, with a massive haul that helped Villa Park regain EPL spot this term, and the Birmingham-based side now appear set to add Iheanacho to their list of players from the West African country, first being John Fashanu.
While Villa’s current coach, Dean Smith is unlikely to spend heavily in January, after forking out a lot in the summer, he is looking to add quality and depth to his squad, especially upfront, for the second half of the season, and Iheanacho has apparently caught his fancy.
The West Midlands club currently only have Jonathan Kodjia and Keinan Davis as backup options to their main striker, Wesley, with the former consistently linked with a move abroad and the latter injured, thereby creating room for a likely signing of 23-year-old Iheanacho.
The UAE 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup gold medalist and most valuable player has scored 13 goals in 66 games for The Foxes since joining them in 2017, although most of his minutes have come from the bench and his bigger impact felt largely in Cup competitions, not the EPL.
However, The Birmingham Mail reports that Villa are eyeing up Iheanacho, who registered an assist and scored a late winner for Brendan Rodgers’ side against Everton on Sunday, helping his side to a dramatic 2-1 win in his first English Premier League appearance of the season.
It is now been speculated that ‘Kelele’ may get a couple of suitors for a loan deal in the January transfer window, but another school of thought hinted that his performance may also secure him more playing times for second-placed Leicester, who are gunning for a second EPL title.
The first test of his return to relevance will come this midweek, when The Foxes face bottom of the table Watford in the English top-flight, with Leicester looking for a seventh straight win, which would add to their current haul of 32 points, eight behind first placed Liverpool.
Incidentally, Iheanacho dedicated to his family, teammates and fans his match winning goal on Sunday against Everton, which was awarded after a lengthy Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check to confirm that the star was not in an offside position.
Though he had not made any EPL appearance this term, Iheanacho replaced Ayoze Perez in the 62nd and assisted Jamie Vardy’s 13th league goal of the season before scoring a 94th minute winner and was then named man of the match, after which he posted on social media: “This one is for the fans the staff my team mates and my family thank you for been there for me.”
