Leicester City’s January striker targets and how Antonio and Diabate have fared | OneFootball

Leicester City ended January without a striker despite tracking Michail Antonio and Ibrahim Diabate, who have since moved. According to LeicesterMercury.co.uk, injuries diverted late-window business, and with Jordan Ayew and Patson Daka misfiring it is looking a costly call.

City entered the window needing goals, a need sharpened when Julian Carranza’s loan was cut short. Instead they signed a centre-back, a box-to-box midfielder, an attacking midfielder and a right-sided winger on deadline day.

Antonio trained with City from December. An early-January injury saw the club abandon a deal. He later trained with Charlton but moved to Qatari side Al-Sailiya on a two-month deal at the start of March.

The 35-year-old has now played senior club football for the first time in 15 months after a serious car accident. He has featured twice for Al-Sailiya, a little over 70 minutes each time, without scoring.

City were then seriously linked only with Ivorian striker Ibrahim Diabate, Sweden’s joint-top scorer in 2025 with GAIS, level with August Priske who joined Birmingham City. An agreement was mooted, with Marti Cifuentes to make the final call, but nothing materialised.

Cifuentes had raised doubts about signing from Sweden in winter, as their summer season left Diabate two months without action and needing time to catch up. He instead joined Alaves on loan, debuting this weekend after four unused outings and helping a 4-3 comeback by winning the ball and holding it up in the build-up to the equaliser.

Source: LeicesterMercury.co.uk