Premier League outfit Leicester City paid £13m for Benkovic before loaning him out to Scottish Premiership champions Celtic
Filip Benkovic has played just eight games since arriving at Celtic on loan from Leicester City in the summer but has seemingly established himself as the club’s best centre-back already.
The Hoops have looked shaky at the back throughout 2018 but they appear to be a different animal entirely with Benkovic on the pitch. Celtic have kept four clean sheets in his last five Scottish Premiership appearances.
So no wonder manager Brendan Rodgers would love to get Benkovic snapped up on a permanent basis.
“The likelihood is that this is a very difficult deal but if there was an opportunity it was one we would look at for sure,” Rodgers said at Celtic’s AGM, as reported by the Scottish Sun.
In truth, ‘difficult’ might be underplaying it.
Leicester paid Dinamo Zagreb £13 million for the 21-year-old for a reason (Mercury) and obviously see Benkovic as a star for the future, albeit one who would benefit from getting regular first-team football under his belt elsewhere.
And it would be little surprise if The Foxes exercised their recall clause as early as January, especially with long-serving skipper Wes Morgan well past his best and being exposed frequently due to his lack of pace. Fellow summer recruits Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu are yet to really establish themselves at the King Power either.
So Celtic might be wasting their time making a move to sign Benkovic on a permanent basis.
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