Chelsea FC Target Andrej Kramaric Heading To Leicester City

Chelsea FC have lost the battle to sign Croatian forward Andrej Kramaric. BBC Sport has reported that the 23-year-old striker is now headed to Leicester City for an undisclosed fee (although thought to be in the region of £9m), subject to a work permit.

NK Rijeka announced the deal via their official twitter account.

The Blues showed keen interest in Kramaric and were reportedly poised to sign him from Croatian outfit Rijeka, until the move broke down because they could not guarantee him meaningful playing time. The plan was to loan him to Dutch club Arnhem Vitesse until the end of the season, then allow him to compete for his place at Stamford Bridge next campaign.

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The deal didn’t satisfy the player and his representatives, and he has opted to sign for the Foxes, a club where his minutes would be assured. Kramaric seemed eager to get his feet wet in the Premier League immediately, and was not willing to wait till next season.

At 23, he is no rookie, but he could still be considered unproven talent even after scoring an amazing 21 goals in 18 league appearances for Rijeka. For now, Kramaric appears to be a special player. His control, creativity and eye for goal — simply fascinating, but history has proven that England’s top tier is a make-or-break league.

After a positive start to the season, Leicester now lie at the bottom of the pile, having garnered a meager 14 points from 20 games — five points from safety. If Kramaric can reproduce his Croatia form in the Premier League, then the Foxes stand a good chance of staying up.

From a player’s standpoint, this could be a good move, but passing up the opportunity to play for Chelsea could be a regret in the future. Leicester offers him instant Premier League exposure, whereas, he would have to wait in line to get his chance at Chelsea, and if you take the Lukaku situation into consideration, he would probably never make a real impact for the Blues.

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However, I still believe that Chelsea would have been a better destination in the long run. With Didier Drogba set to retire next season, Kramaric would have certainly gotten his chance to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world.

All is left to be seen though, if he actually pulls the Foxes out of the relegation zone by replicating the superb performances that put him on the map, bigger clubs will certainly come knocking. If he keeps finding the back of the net, but Leicester City goes down anyway, bigger clubs will still come knocking.

So the chances of him ending up at a title-contending club are still huge, but it is all up to him now.

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