Our view: Leicester’s Fousseni Diabate could step out of Mahrez’s shadow at Celtic

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Scottish Premiership champions Celtic reportedly want to raid Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City for Fousseni Diabate.

Fousseni Diabate had big shoes to fill when he joined Leicester City from Gazelec Ajaccio during the January 2018 transfer window. After all, the Foxes have a history when it comes to signing exciting young wingers from the French second tier.

Anthony Knockaert lifted the Championship title with Nigel Pearson’s counter-attacking Leicester side in 2014, two years after he arrived from Guingamp. The former Le Havre youngster Riyad Mahrez, however, went one better.

A Premier League winner and a PFA Player of the Year to boot in 2016, Mahrez arrived for £500,000 and left four years later for a £59.5 million profit (BBC). Decent business, we are sure you’ll agree.

So all eyes were firmly fixed on £2 million man Diabate as he looked to follow in the footsteps of Manchester City’s one-time record signing.

“In the past Leicester have signed good players from Ligue 2 in Riyad Mahrez and Anthony Knockaert,” former Leicester coach Claude Puel told the Express when Diabate arrived.

“Diabate has a lot of quality, pace, good penetration, very good feet and he can make the difference. He is versatile and can play anywhere across the front, as a winger on both sides and also as a striker.”

Unfortunately, Diabate never managed to live up to almost impossible comparisons with Mahrez at the King Power. The 23-year-old looked a star in the making when scoring twice in a dazzling debut against Peterborough United in the FA Cup, cutting in from the wing like the Algerian in his pomp, but that is as good as it got.

Diabate is now well down the pecking order after returning from a disappointing loan spell at Sivasspor. Yet maybe a move to Celtic is exactly what the fleet-footed winger needs to recapture the dazzling quality he showed during that memorable 5-1 win at London Road 17 months ago.

The Record claims that the Scottish Premiership champions are offering Diabate a fresh start and, with Neil Lennon’s tactics relying heavily on individual quality in wide areas, everything looks set up for Leicester’s forgotten man to succeed north of the border.