Leeds United poised to hijack Wolves move for 42-goal PL striker

Leeds United poised to hijack Wolves move for 42-goal PL striker

Wolves already have plenty of goals in their team with Matheus Cunha, Jorgen Strand Larsen and Hwang Hee-Chan all offering qualities in attack, but are still in the market for extra reinforcements to boost their hopes of survival. Vitor Pereira’s side are understood to be one of the leading contenders to sign former Manchester City and Leicester City forward Kelechi Iheanacho from Spanish heavyweights Sevilla.

The forward, who has scored 42 goals in 196 Premier League appearances, recently ended his seven-year stay with Leicester City to complete a move to the seven-time Europa League winners over the summer.

Iheanacho, who scored just five goals in 23 league appearances during his final season at the King Power Stadium, said: “I can’t wait to get started, meet my team members and we can achieve great success together.” After joining Sevilla in the summer. The 55-time Nigerian international had vowed to take the team to greater heights after seemingly arriving as a replacement for Youssef En-Nesyri.

However, he has struggled to make an impression in Andalusia and has been limited to just 11 appearances across all competitions with all three of his goals coming in the Copa Del Rey. In that time, Iheanacho has been limited to just five league starts, with his last appearance in La Liga coming at the start of December.

Sevilla are understood to be open to loaning out Iheanacho in January in a deal which could potentially include an option to buy over the summer. Football Insider claims Leeds are currently the frontrunners to get the deal over the line despite top-flight interest from strugglers Wolves and Ipswich Town.

Kelechi Iheanacho burst onto the scene in fine fashion during the 2015/16 season for Manchester City and was a hugely impressive understudy to Sergio Aguero during his two years at the Etihad.

The £25m move to Leicester City in 2017 was seen as a real coup at the time, but the Nigerian forward never quite reached the heights expected of him despite scoring some crucial goals during his seven-year stay at the King Power Stadium.

Overall, Iheanacho scored 61 goals and provided 34 assists in 232 matches for the Foxes, with the bulk of those coming in the 2020/21 season when he fired in 19 across all competitions while helping Leicester to a first ever FA Cup triumph.

Since then, Iheanacho’s progress has been hampered by injury and he has failed to exceed the five-goal mark in the league in any of his past three seasons. As a last ditch loan effort, he could provide Wolves with a little bit of extra cover, but in truth they should be looking to pursue other targets first.

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