Leicester in ‘concrete’ approach for 30-goal forward with double Daka connection as value revealed
Leicester City have been attempting to reunite Patson Daka with one of his former attacking colleagues, according to a report.
After a quiet summer transfer window, Leicester were a bit busier during January. They brought in Victor Kristiansen, Tete and Harry Souttar to give themselves a mid-season boost. In turn, Brendan Rodgers will be hoping he can lift them up the Premier League table.
Across all competitions, Leicester have drawn a blank in front of goal in half of their six matches in 2023 so far. Only once have they found the net multiple times in a single match since the turn of the calendar year.
Therefore, there could be a particular onus on winger Tete to contribute in the final third in an attempt to reverse their fortunes.
Aware of that need, it appears Leicester have been looking at a wider range of players too. According to L’Equipe, another player on their radar is Sekou Koita.
The Mali international previously played alongside current Leicester forward Patson Daka at RB Salzburg and, previously, their feeder club Liefering in Austria.
From 37 games on the same team – all but two of which were for Salzburg – Daka and Koita assisted five goals apiece for each other to score.
Hence, with Daka only on three goals for the current season from 22 appearances, Leicester have been looking into the idea of pairing them up again.
L’Equipe claims that Leicester made a “concrete” approach to Salzburg about signing Koita in January. The Premier League club would have been willing to offer around €10million (£8.9m) to bring him in.
It could have been a tempting offer for Salzburg, who haven’t been able to use Koita much this season (nine times, to be precise) due to injuries.
Leicester fall short with Koita transfer attempt
However, the Austrian side stood firm, believing they may be able to get a better deal for the 23-year-old in the summer.
Leicester were not the only side left disappointed, since Hoffenheim also made an approach to take him to the Bundesliga. Koita also has admirers in Ligue 1 with Marseille, who were hesitant to bid due to his physical state.
Only under contract with Salzburg until 2024, Koita could yet be of interest to any of those clubs in the summer.
For now, he will have to focus on adding to his solitary goal scored this season, and the 30 he has managed from 63 games across his whole Salzburg career.
Leicester, for their part, will have to continue getting by with the likes of Daka, Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho as their main centre-forwards. They are also increasingly relying on the likes of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes to score goals from other roles.