Leicester City signed Filip Benkovic in the summer of 2018 and decided to loan him straightaway to Celtic for the rest of the season. The Foxes have the likes of Wes Morgan, Jonny Evans, Harry Maguire and Çağlar Söyüncü in defence. Therefore, it made sense for the club to send Benkovic away on loan as he would have struggled for game time.
The Croatian centre back impressed massively last year and showcased the fact that Leicester have spent their money well. The defender has been missing in action for Celtic ever since the turn of the year due to injury, but he is expected to come back by March.
Celtic might have been interested in extending his loan spell given his impressive outings at Celtic Park. However, the defender recently went on to express his desire about playing in the Premier League next season. He was quoted as saying (Leicestershire Live), ”I want to make another step at the end of the season. I want to show that I can play in the English Premier League. Here, I’ve played a lot of high-level games, which has helped me a lot.”
”But I think I have plenty of room for progress. I need to work, to improve, to play in every part of the game, I just have to continue this kind of rhythm with strong work in training. I cannot wait for new challenges, I want more challenges, I set very high goals. I’ll do absolutely everything to reach them.”
Celtic are expected to dive in the summer transfer market to sign a new defender as they are likely to lose Dedryck Boyata and Filip Benkovic (our opinion). Leicester signed the Croatian for £13m, and there is no doubt that the English club have a gem on their hands.
At just 21, the former Dinamo Zagreb player shows immense maturity. He has a certain sense of nonchalance to his game as he hardly seems to be fazed or troubled in tough situations. The defender stands at 6ft4inches and has a commanding presence in the air. To go with all that, he is comfortable on the ball and is decisive in his challenges. We wouldn’t be wrong in saying that the Croatian’s overall demeanour somewhat reminds us of former Celtic defender Virgil Van Dijk who is arguably the best defender in the business right now.
Losing Benkovic was almost inevitable for the Hoops as Leicester would want to try him out in the Premier League next season after they spent over £10m to acquire his services. Now that the defender too wants to return to the King Power Stadium, any hopes of an extension of the loan deal have been crashed.
