Leicester City look to cash in on Musa's two goals as deal with Galatasaray inches closer

ENGLISH Premiership side Leicester City are looking to cash in on Ahmed Musa's two World Cup goals yesterday as the club believe that his brace against Iceland will boost the strikers' value as they prepare to offload him in a clearout exercise.

Musa scored Nigeria's first goal of the World Cup yesterday in Russia finding the back of the net against Iceland in the 52nd and 75th minutes. Both goals were executed brilliantly, turning Musa into an instant celebrity and adding his names to the history books as the first Nigerian to score in two successive World Cup.

In 2014, Musa scored twice against Argentina and with yesterday's brace, he now also becomes the first Nigerian ever to score four World Cup goals and find the back of the net twice in two games. Currently a Leicester player but on loan to CSKA Moscow, Musa is expected to be put up for sale and his form has excited his club, who believe he will now attract a good price.

Leicester boss Claude Puel is looking to overhaul his squad for the new season, with Musa one of those players who are expected to leave this summer. Musa's agent has already said they are in talks with Turkish club Galatasaray over a loan deal with an option to buy and have had offers from other clubs.

It is believed that Leicester are understood to be keen to sell rather than loan but would want to recoup as much of the £16m they paid to CSKA Moscow in 2016, which was a club record at the time. Musa spent the second half of last season on loan at former club CSKA, where he scored seven goals in 16 appearances.

William D’avila, Musa's agent said: “Yes, we are in talks with Galatasaray. They are a huge club who’ll play in the Champions League, so why not? The transfer is possible.”

“Musa has offers from other clubs but he’s keen on playing for Galatasaray, so we are currently working on a loan deal with an option to buy. He’ll make a decision soon but I think we can say there’s a 50% chance of Musa joining the club.”

Meanwhile, Iceland's coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, has admitted that his team struggled to cope with Musa's pace in yesterday’s 0-2 loss. Speaking at the post-match press conference, the coach said his team still have a chance of progressing to the round of 16 despite the loss to Nigeria, which according to him was down to the pace of Musa.

Mr Hallgrimsson said: "We had our game plan and we stuck to it but sometimes you have to admit that some players turn up when you least expected. The pace which Musa ‎used in getting behind our defence will trouble any defender in the world.

"My defenders did really well but Musa was very quick for them. Same as he would be against most defenders I have seen at this World Cup but the chance to qualify is still there for us."

Iceland are third in the group heading into their final game against Croatia, where a win for them will not be sufficient unless Nigeria fail to match their feat when they take on Argentina same day. Group D's games will be decided on Tuesday with Croatia already through while second placed Nigeria need a win or at least a draw over Argentina to be sure of progression.

Yesterday, Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr said the half time introduction of Tyronne Ebuehi is part of the reason why Nigeria had a brilliant second half. Nigeria did not have a single shot on target in the first half but recovered brilliantly following the restart.

Mr Rohr said that aside telling his players to attack more in the second half, the introduction of Ebuehi added a much needed injection of pace and directness which was missing in the first half. He added that Ebuehi brought about an instant improvement in the way Nigeria approached the game in the second half.

"I told my players to attack more and the introduction of Ebuehi gave us fresh injection of pace and made us more aggressive upfront. We need to maintain this style of play because that is how we know how to play,” Mr Rohr said.