Leicester Edging Closer to Beating Premier League Rivals to Summer Capture of Portugal & Porto Ace

Leicester City are reportedly close to agreeing a deal to bring Portuguese full-back Ricardo Pereira to the Premier League.

Portuguese newspaper A Bola (h/t Leicester Mercury) has claimed that the Foxes are almost certain to wrap up a deal to bring the right-back to England, with a long-term contract and bumper pay packet believed to have already been agreed between his agent and the Midlands outfit.

The Mercury themselves have alleged that no such transfer has yet been put in place, but it seems there is no smoke without fire and Pereira may become Leicester's first summer signing in the near future.

Shaun Botterill/GettyImages

Pereira worked alongside current Leicester manager Claude Puel during a season-long loan spell with OGC Nice in France in the 2015/16 campaign. He also played for the Ligue 1 club temporarily last term as well.

He has since returned to parent club Porto and featured 41 times for the Super Liga giants, weighing in with two goals and seven assists, and his form for Porto has piqued the interest of Puel and Leicester.

Pereira has had a number of would-be suitors following his tail since his return to his homeland, with Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton and Juventus all tracking the defender over the past 12 months.

(You may also be interested in Man Utd Star Splits Opinion Among Foxes Fans After Links With Summer Move to Leicester Emerge)

Due to his previous working relationship with Puel, however, it would seem he wants to reignite that partnership at the King Power stadium and head to England in the summer.

Leicester need a new right-back with Danny Simpson out of favour under Puel and Daniel Amartey having to be deployed as an auxiliary full-back under the Frenchman since his appointment in October 2017.

The Ghana international has been sidelined with a hamstring strain recently though, meaning that Simpson has had a chance to stake his claim for a starting berth. Puel, however, still wishes to bolster that area of his squad and may elect to fork out the £22m it would take to prise Pereira away from Porto.