Mail online’s Dominic King broke the story that Leicester City are interested in signing Monaco’s Belgian midfield starlet Youri Tielemans. The report says that the Foxes are willing to pay £20million for the 21-year-old and Claude Puel is said to be a massive admirer of the midfielder.
Having come through the ranks at RSC Anderlecht, a club that has produced Premier League stars such as Romelu Lukaku, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Vincent Kompany among others, Youri Tielemans made his senior debut for the club at just 16 years old. This made him the league’s 4th youngest ever player and in the same season, he became the youngest Belgian ever to play in the UEFA Champions League.
He won the Belgian young player of the year award in each of his first two seasons with Anderlecht. After 139 appearances, the 21-year-old made a £21million move to Monaco in 2017, signing a five- year deal.
Youri Tielemans stands out for his solid all-round skill set with the ball and his tremendous ability to shoot from distance. The Monaco man’s versatility of playing anywhere across central midfield is a massive bonus.
With the Foxes limited to James Maddison and inexperienced youngster Harvey Barnes, who only made his debut earlier this month, for creativity, Tielemans could fit in perfectly in the number 10 role, playing behind centre-forward Jamie Vardy.
With Wilfred Ndidi and Hamza Choudhury providing steel to the midfield, the Belgian international will get a free role and can unleash the pace and power of Jamie Vardy in front of him.
Romelu Lukaku, Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Vincent Kompany are the other Belgians who have made it big in the Premier League and are ones Tielemans should look to emulate if he does make the big move to Leicester. Eden Hazard, who also made the move from Ligue 1 to the Premier League at a similar age has worked wonders at Chelsea and he surely is somebody Tielemans can look up to.
Monaco have had a very poor season so far as they sit second bottom in Ligue 1 and with fears of relegation looming around the principality club, this could be perfect timing for the Tielemans to jump ship.
With Leonardo Jardim, who famously dropped Tielemans from the squad to face St. Etienne earlier in the season, returning to Monaco to replace Thierry Henry, Tielemans could be open to a move to the Premier League which has turned a number of his fellow countrymen into superstars.
