BREAKING NEWS: Leicester City sign Birmingham winger Gray
Published:
Jamie Clark, Sports Editor | January 4, 2016
Premier League high-fliers Leicester City have signed teenage winger Demarai Gray from fellow Midlands club Birmingham City for a reported £3.75m.
Regarded as one of the best homegrown talents outside the English top-flight, 19-year-old Gray has penned a four-and-a-half-year contract with the Foxes and will be available to make his debut in the FA Cup third round tie against Tottenham.
BREAKING: #lcfc sign winger @Demarai7 from Birmingham City. #GrayLCFC pic.twitter.com/Oz61oDPjQy
— Leicester City (@LCFC) January 4, 2016
Capped by England youth teams up to Under-20 level, Gray is understood to have previously interested Bournemouth before they turned their attentions to Juan Iturbe. Everton had also been linked with a move.
Gray: a “Dream”
Upon signing, Gray said: “It’s been my dream to play in the Premier League since I started playing football so I’m very happy to join the club.
“It’s a great Club. The facilities are great and for a player like me it’s an ideal place for me to improve. Meeting all the staff here, it seems like a nice family place, so I think that’s perfect for me.
“You can see how well the team has been doing this year and I watch a lot of football so I can see that the way Leicester City play suits my style.
“I only hear good things about Leicester and I’m looking forward to starting.”
Leicester adding homegrown talent
Under Claudio Ranieri, Gray joins fellow English talents Danny Drinkwater and Liam Moore among others at Leicester. Competition for a wide berth at the King Power Stadium will be strong, given the sensational form of Algeria international Riyad Mahrez.
Marc Albrighton and Jeffrey Schlupp are also options on the flanks open to Ranieri, who has defied all expectations by masterminding a fantastic first-half of the season for the Foxes.
Coral go 11/8 that Leicester can finish the campaign in the top four, and Gray will add guile as well as raw pace to a team that plays from back to front on the counter quickly.
With less than 100 appearances under his belt, there is huge potential for development in the top flight. Gray, who was born during Euro ’96, has scored eight goals for Birmingham (all in the Championship), and now gets to test himself at Premier League level.
