Belgian newspaper Het Belang van Limburg have a feature in their Friday newspaper on Wilfred Ndidi and what is now an expected move to Leicester City.
The column titled ‘Wilfred De Niro’ has been written to be read from those of a Genk perspective, but provides interest for Leicester supporters wanting to know more about the transfer situation.
The De Niro reference is because Ndidi is one of the stars of Genk, and when people go the cinema they go to watch a film with a big star in it. So it is, at least to some extent, for football fans and those following Genk are expected to be very unhappy about this winter sale.
Genk, to put it bluntly, need money, the Belgian newspaper explains. The club is run at a structural loss and so need to bring in transfer revenue, however, they can’t turn the base financial position around if they lose fans by doing so.
But Ndidi to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City would be a special transfer, with HBVL explaining explaining the €17.7m (there are slightly varying figures and additional bonuses) would be the biggest in the club’s history, and the second largest in Belgium.
It’s not just the transfer fee, the players themselves are offered an ‘annual salary three, four or five times’ what they currently earn and then ‘the head goes crazy’.
It’s something Genk fans simply have to suck up, but it could get even worse. Leon Bailey and Alejandro Pozuelo are also coveted, and Genk’s season could be cut down at the knees if their stars are all stripped out. The best case scenario would have been selling one and having him loaned back for the rest of the season, but Leicester City don’t seem to have offered that option.
Now Genk just have to make sure they keep the other two.
