Leicester City target reportedly subject of a €20 million bid

Leicester City target Marlon Santos has been the subject of a €20 million bid from an unnamed club, as revealed by OGC Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivère.

The Brazilian centre-back initially joined FC Barcelona B on loan from Fluminese in 2016 and was signed on a permanent deal after an impressive season with the second team.

Although he was promoted to the first team under Luis Enrique, the arrival of Ernesto Valverde meant that he had to go on another two-year loan term at OGC Nice in 2017.

Now, having done well yet again, Marlon Santos has attracted interest from Leicester City and West Ham United, but none of them are reported to have tabled any official offer or held talks with FC Barcelona, his parent club.

However, Nice president Jean-Pierre has now told that Barca have received an offer for the young defender, though he didn’t name the club.

"“Barcelona has received an offer of 20 million euros for Marlon, so he should leave the OGC Nice,” he was quoted as saying by French newspaper Nice-Matin."

Marlon made 27 appearances for the French outfit last season, starting in 25 of those, which is considerably good for someone of his age.

Claude Puel does like to invest a lot of time in youth, but would he be willing to invest money in youth as well?

The Frenchman has been pretty active in the transfer market in his pursuit of defenders – having landed Ricardo Pereira from FC Porto for €22 million already – but it remains to be seen if he would go for a relatively inexperienced defender.

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He has also been reported to be after West Bromwich Albion trio Jonny Evans, Ahmed Hegazi and Liam Dawson, while Middlesbrough’s Ben Gibson has been linked, too.