Leicester City offered Kelechi Iheanacho a three-year deal on the day the club is scheduled to face the player’s former club, Manchester City in a Premier League match. The match will kick-off at 17:30 on Saturday, April 3, 2021.
The 24-year-old Nigerian striker has been having a time of his life at Leicester City especially in 2021. Since some of the forwards of the club like James Maddison and Harvey Barnes went out with different degrees of injuries, Kelechi Iheanacho stepped up to become an important player at the club.
He has been so good that he scored 5 goals in three Premier League games in March alone which earned him the best player in the league for the month of March.
Very happy to be named the EA Sports @premierleague player of the month, March 2021. Thanks to my teammates the manager, staffs and everyone at this awesome club @LCFC and all the fans 💙
— Kelechi Iheanacho (@67Kelechi) April 2, 2021
OLUOMACHUKWU 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/IYwRMBdiS4
He is going into the match against Manchester City as the player with the best goals ratio in the league which means that the possibility of scoring a goal against the league’s table leaders is high.
Recall that the 24-year-old striker left Manchester City on August 3, 2017, for Leicester City because of lack of regular game time. When he got to Leicester, he was not able to adapt to the club’s system on time. He struggled for a while before he started making a reasonable impact at the club.
After extending his contract at Leicester City until June 30, 2024, Kelechi Iheanacho said: “I can’t express how I’m feeling. I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m overwhelmed! It’s a great moment and I’m happy that Leicester City gave me a new contract.
“It’s been a great time here. It’s not been easy, but there’s a lot of people here that are good, great people to work with. They are nice people and they make me feel comfortable and welcome since I came in.
“It’s been really great being here. It’s like a family. I’m happy being here and hopefully I can stay here many more years.”
Pep Guardiola praises Kelechi Iheanacho
Ahead of the Leicester City meeting with Manchester City, the coach of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola acknowledged how Kelechi Iheanacho had improved especially in this season.
He described his former player’s improvement at Leicester City as incredible and described Iheanacho’s personality as “fantastic”.
“Incredible. The quality was there, he was a young player here and I believe, at that moment with Gabriel and Sergio we didn’t have much space,” Guardiola said.
“He is a fantastic person, we had a good relationship, and I’m delighted it’s going well lately. He’s playing for the injured Maddison and he links really well with the midfield.
“He’s good in behind, he’s fast and in the final third he has the right tempo, he is so clear in front of the goal.”
