Sporting give green light to Silva's £22m Leicester move

Dom Farrell

Sporting give green light to Silva's £22m Leicester move image

Sporting CP have reached an agreement with Leicester City for the transfer of Adrien Silva, with the Portugal midfielder's move to the Premier League now awaiting FIFA and Football Association approval.

Leicester requested a two-hour extension to Thursday's deadline to get a reported £22 million deal for the 28-year-old over the line.

Danny Drinkwater's late outgoing to Chelsea was confirmed shortly afterwards but there remained no word on Silva, who was photographed at Leicester's training ground.

Leicester are understood to be confident their paperwork is in order with the FA, while Sporting released a statement on Friday confirming the deal, providing FIFA give the green light.

The statement read: "Sporting Club de Portugal... informs the market that we have reached an agreement with Leicester City Football Club for the definitive transfer of the sporting and economic rights of the professional soccer player Adrien Silva.

"The registration of the same [player] is awaiting confirmation of FIFA."

Euro 2016 winner Silva, who was heavily linked with a switch to then Premier League champions Leicester last year, was allowed to leave the Portugal camp ahead of his country's 5-1 win over the Faroe Islands on Thursday to tie up his club future.

Deadline day proved to be busy for Leicester, with Austria centre-back Aleksandar Dragovic joining on a season-long loan from Bayer Leverkusen, while midfielder Nampalys Mendy returned to former club Nice on a similar deal.

Although Drinkwater departed, another hero of their title win – 2015-16 PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez – remains at the King Power Stadium.

Vicente Iborra, Harry Maguire and Kelechi Iheanacho joined Craig Shakespeare's squad earlier in the transfer window.

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.