Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy is trying to convince teenage prospect Jeremy Monga to stay by offering him a pathway to the first team.
The 15-year-old has been training with Van Nistelrooy’s first team but can only join sessions a couple of times per week because of his schooling and commitments to the under-21s.
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However, Monga will be able to sign scholar forms this summer and Van Nistelrooy has told him he will be involved in Leicester’s first-team pre-season if he commits to the club.
Monga is being tracked by several high-profile clubs in the Premier League and Europe who have regularly sent scouts to watch him.
If Monga, who scored three times and assisted twice for England under-16s as they lost to France and beat Colombia and Denmark recently, chooses to leave Leicester will have to seek compensation through a tribunal.
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“He’s part of our training set up, as you know, on the days that it’s possible for him within his school program, his games in the under 21s and playing for the national team,” Van Nistelrooy said during his pre-match news conference ahead of Sunday’s trip to Chelsea.
“He did very well at the under-16s for England as captain and scored, so we follow his program very closely and within that, he’s training with us.
“The priority is to get him and to keep him at the club and there have been conversations between myself and the club and Jeremy, his agent and his family. We presented him with the plan that we have for him.
“We are limited in his sessions because of school, but it’s about the plan that we have for him. Next season that will change.
“It is part of the plan for him to be part of pre-season and take it from there because we see a player who can have an impact sooner rather than later.
“It’s ongoing, so we are doing absolutely everything we can to keep him here.”
(Michael Regan/Getty Images)
