Leicester City’s hopes of signing Adrién Silva from Sporting may not be over yet.
According to Diário de Notícias, there’s still a chance for the player to leave the Portuguese club in January.
The newspaper claims that Leicester have promised him they’ll make another attempt during the winter market, since Claudio Ranieri is a big fan of the midfielder and won’t give up on the transfer so soon.
Although Sporting were not willing to sell, they were said to be hopeful that Leicester would pay the €45m release clause.
The Portuguese club usually push far as they can to receive a big amount for their transfers. In Adrién Silva’s case, they will do it even more, since the club own only 80% of his economic rights. The other 20% belong to an investment fund.
The midfielder reportedly still fancies a move to Leicester, where he’d earn four times more than his salary in Lisbon.
Sporting have signed the Brazilian midfielder Elias to replace Adrién, since they were prepared to see Leicester take their captain away. Now if the Foxes still want the player, they just need to find the right arguments for Sporting to accept the bid.
That would probably be by paying the release clause. Another possibility is if the selling club convince the investment fund to give up on part of the money, which is obviously very unlikely.
