Croatian club HNK Rijeka have confirmed that Andrej Kramaric has moved to Premier League club Leicester City on Wednesday.
Leicester haven’t released any official statement, but a statement on the Rijeka website said that the deal had been finalised.
“Now officially we can say that [Rijeka] has completed the transfer of Andrej Kramaric to Leicester City,” Ivan Mance, Rijeka’s sporting director, said. “We are glad that the whole job [is] completed to mutual satisfaction and thanks to all who participated and helped to realise the biggest transfer in the club’s history.”
Although the details of the transfer fee are yet to disclosed, although The Guardian’s Stuart James reports that the Foxes will sign him for a fee close to £9.7m, which in fact is a club-record transfer fee.
Andrej #Kramaric signed for @OfficialFOXES! We wish you all the best in your future career. Thanks you for unforgettable moments in Rijeka!
— NK Rijeka (@NKRijeka) January 7, 2015
Kramaric has been in terrific form this season, scoring 28 goals in 24 appearances, via Guardian. Nigel Pearson will be hoping his new striker will replicate such devastating form in the Premier League as well.
At point it seemed like the young striker is all set to join Chelsea. Gianluca di Marzio, popular Sky Italia journalist, claimed back in December that Kramaric will travel to England on January 5th for the medical. Chelsea will set an offer around €7-8m , on a four year contract with wages around €1.2m. Kramaric upon signing with Chelsea could finish the season on loan at Vitesse or Leicester.
Few days later, Croatian media Vecernji had published an article whose headline (google) translated to something like “End of Story! Chelsea buys Kramarica and sent him on loan to Leicester!” – that roughly means “deal done”.
On 5th January, Italian website TMW claimed that Kramaric would be in London where his future to be decided within next few days. Leicester City have not only put in a higher bid for the forward but they have offered him regular football, something obviously Chelsea have failed to assure him.