Filip Benkovic suggests Harry Maguire Leicester stay contributed to Celtic loan

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Filip Benkovic joined Brendan Rodgers’s Celtic on loan from Leicester City in the summer transfer window.

Filip Benkovic has suggested to The Scottish Sun that he could join Celtic on loan because Leicester City did not sell Harry Maguire.

Brendan Rodgers’s Celtic signed Benkovic on a season-long loan deal from Leicester on transfer deadline day.

The 21-year-old central defender moved to the Foxes from Dinamo Zagreb in August for a transfer fee reported by Sky Sports to be worth £13 million.

The Croatia Under-21 international centre-back has suggested that he could go out on loan because 25-year-old England international central defender Maguire – who earns £40,000 per week as salary, according to Spotrac.com – stayed back at Leicester.

Benkovic told The Scottish Sun: “I think this is the best option for me for preparing for football in England and their Premier League – that’s why I am delighted to go to Celtic.

“Because Leicester didn’t sell Harry Maguire, I knew this would be what happened to me. Going to Celtic gives me up to a year to adapt to British football so I am looking at this loan very positively.”

Manchester United interest

Maguire was superb for England at the 2018 World Cup in Russia in the summer, and the Leicester defender was linked with a move to Manchester United in the summer transfer window.

Sky Sports reported in August that the Red Devils were planning a bid for the former Sheffield United and Hull City centre-back.

However, nothing materialised, and it seems that United’s failure to sign Maguire played a role in Benkovic moving to Celtic on loan in the summer transfer window.