Leicester City are believed to have opened talks with experienced centre-back Jonny Evans over signing a new contract to keep him at the King Power Stadium beyond this season.
Evans joined the Foxes in a cut-price £3.5m deal from West Brom in the summer of 2018 and has been a crucial part of the club’s recent revival under the guidance of Brendan Rodgers. However, his current contract only has another seven months left to run.
As things stand, the 32-year-old Northern Ireland international is on course to become a free agent at the end of the season and could be considered a bargain signing for a number of Premier League sides to add extra depth at the back.
Indeed, even former club Manchester United have been linked and are rumoured to be keeping tabs on the situation as they weigh up a number of centre-back options.
Sky Sports reports that negotiations between Evans and Leicester over a new deal that would run until 2023 have got underway, although there is not yet an agreement on wages.
It is said that Evans remains an important part of Rodgers’ plans at Leicester and that he is ‘very happy’ at the club and ‘keen’ to extend his contract. Both side are described as ‘confident’ an agreement will be struck and the talks are ‘amicable’.
Evans started all 38 of Leicester’s Premier League games last season as the Foxes enjoyed a fifth place finish – their highest since winning the title in 2015/16 – and returning to European football.
Evans often partnered Harry Maguire prior to his £80m transfer to Manchester United in 2019.
Yet still in need of reinforcements to partner Maguire, 90min revealed last month that centre-back is a priority position for the Old Trafford club in the transfer market next summer.
RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano and Villarreal’s Pau Torres are names at the top of the shortlist of possible targets. But Leicester favourite Caglar Soyuncu is another player United have been paying close attention to, alongside Sevilla’s Jules Kounde and Brighton’s Ben White.
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Source: 90min
