Kelechi Iheanacho, who is the subject of a transfer tug-of-war involving West Ham United, Everton and Leicester City, has rejoined his Super Eagles teammates in their Paris camp ahead of tomorrow’s international friendly against Togo.
Iheanacho has been tipped to leave Manchester City after a season he rarely featured in Pep Guardiola’s side, but the Citizens want a buy-back clause inserted in any contract he signs if they were to sell him.
According to dailymail.co.uk, West Ham United are hopeful they can win the race for the £20million-rated 20-year-old striker but Everton and Leicester are also interested.
It reports that City do not want to be left in the same situation as Chelsea, who allowed Romelu Lukaku to leave without inserting an option to buy back the striker at a set price.
Although West Ham are willing to agree to the buy back clause, they want any fee agreed on to be at least double what they pay, though City will likely argue it should be closer to the £30m mark or less. The total can vary depending on what Iheanacho achieves at a new club.
Despite that limited opportunity, Iheanacho still managed seven goals and three assists, with those strikes coming at an average rate of one every 128 minutes.
But Iheanacho could still remain at Manchester City as he recently dismissed any talk of an impending Etihad exit, telling reporters: ‘I’m not very aware of that.
“I just keep working with the team and I’m still at Manchester City so I’ll meet up with the boys and kick off the season with Manchester City.
“I’m happy to stay at Manchester City and keep fighting to help them achieve what they want to achieve. Manchester City is a big team and we need to go far as a squad, so we need everybody.”
Meanwhile, Iheanacho has rejoined the Super Eagles at their Paris camp ahead of tomorrow’s international friendly against Togo.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) yesterday announced that 19 players are in camp, including Iheanacho, for the friendly against the Sparrow Hawks at the Stade Municipal Saint-Leu-la-Forêt in Paris.
There are also reports that seven players, including Victor Moses, John Ogu, Kenneth Omeruo, Ogenyi Onazi, Daniel Akpeyi, Moses Simon and Brown Ideye are expected to return to the team, while currently with the squad in France would be drooped after the Togo friendly.
