Islam Slimani has spent the past few months on and off flirting with a return to Sporting. The Leicester City striker was excellent for the Lisbon club, which led the Foxes to want to sign him but he hasn’t managed to convince managers to give him enough of a chance.
Sporting don’t spend big fees on transfers and, as Leicester fully know, are very difficult to deal with. Any return for Slimani would surely have to be on loan, and even then it’s questionable what Sporting would pay and how the striker’s wages would be split up.
Portuguese newspaper Record cover the rumour, and it may not be a bad alternative for Leicester City.
Al Hilal are expected to invest heavily in their team over the next year or so, and it’s unknown if that would be to the extent of spending a big fee on Slimani.
What they’d almost certainly be able to do is pay for a loan and cover the player’s wages, a scenario which may become more attractive as the window goes on.