Championship side agree loan deal for 20-year-old Chelsea midfielder
According to an X (yeah it’s X now) from transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano, Leicester City have agreed on a deal to sign young Chelsea midfielder Cesare Casadei on loan for the 2023/24 season.
The medical will be held this week and a deal will be signed if all things go well. It was revealed a few days ago that Leicester boss Enzo Maresca was the key reason behind this move taking place.
Chelsea also believe that the Foxes manager will develop Casadei well during the course of the season and make him a better player come next summer.
Chelsea signed Casadei from Inter Milan for a deal worth around £12m last summer. The Italian did not make a senior appearance for the Blues in the 2022/23 season but had an exceptional U20 World Cup with the national team in Argentina.
The 20-year-old scored seven goals and assisted two in that tournament while playing as a central midfielder. He led the Italian U20 to the final before narrowly losing out to Uruguay.
It was left up to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s wizardry in the box to secure the win for Leicester against the Midlands rivals, but they are clearly a work in progress with several gaps to fill in their squad.
Stephy Mavididi has already arrived on the left-hand side of attack but the Foxes could now be aiming to strengthen the other side of their forward line.
And it looks as though City have a target in mind as according to reputable Turkish reporter Yağız Sabuncuoğlu, Leicester are one of a number of clubs who have made a loan-to-buy offer for Galatasaray’s Yunus Akgun.
It is believed that the bid involves a mandatory €7 million (£6 million) purchase next summer should the loan move go through, but there is competition from clubs in France as well with both Bordeaux and Nantes interested, but they have both offered €1 million less than City in terms of an obligatory permanent fee in 2024.
Akgun started off at Galatasaray as a child and worked his way through their academy setup, eventually making his senior debut in August 2018 as an 18-year-old.
The 5 ft 8 in winger was gradually eased into their first-team setup in 2018-19 but the following season saw a lack of game-time, which led to a loan move to Adana Demirspor in 2020 after he had dominated the under-19’s Turkish Super Lig the year prior.
Akgun spent two seasons at Demirspor, firstly in the second tier of Turkey’s footballing pyramid and won promotion with them, but his star showings came in the top flight in the 2021-22 season when he scored eight times and notched 11 assists.
