Standard Liege are braced for Leicester City to step up transfer interest in midfielder Hakim Sahabo, according to reports in Belgium.
Sahabo, aged 19, only joined Standard from Lille last summer but, after gradually fighting his way into the senior team over the next four months, he went on to get enough of a taste and do well enough in the Belgian top flight to be dubbed “a revelation” by the Rwandan media. He was named as his club’s player of the month in January.
They were performances which impressed scouts as well as his own coaches and L’avenir claims that “several clubs abroad” are closely keeping track of his availability this summer including Eintracht Frankfurt, Hoffenheim and “especially Leicester”.
It is reported that Leicester have not yet made an official offer for the teenager but “have made inquiries with the Liege management”, who would like to keep him, but are resigned to knowing that will be very difficult if City stump up a fee of something like 5 million euros plus additional future bonuses.
Sahabo has been known as an attacking midfielder as he has come through the junior ranks but he has been used in a withdrawn role as part of two central midfielders by Liege coach Ivan Leko. It was “his duty is to win balls and distribute due to his unique and extraordinary passing abilities”.
“This is the role that the coach entrusted to me, sometimes you have to do the dirty work and make others shine,” said the player. “That’s why I played simpler.”
