Town and Leicester City are being linked with Tromsø winger Karim Essediri. Scouts from both clubs are reported to have watched the 24-year-old Tunisian in action in a pre-season friendly in La Manga earlier this week.

Eight British scouts were apparently set to attend the game to watch Hungarian striker Peter Kovacs, however, he was left on the bench prompting six of them not to bother with the trip to Spain.

Kovacs was linked with Town in January, his agent Gary Stevens telling a Norwegian paper that the Blues were interested in him, a story denied by Joe Royle. The Town boss sais the report was merely an agent talking up his player and said he had never heard of Kovacs.

The Essediri link appears to be more of the same with Stevens again the story's source. Stevens is not yet Essediri's agent but he says he hopes he will be soon.

The agent says that Essidiri made an impression on the visiting scouts: "The scouts liked what they saw. They were very impressed but I have not discussed too much with them.

"After all, I am not his agent. I spoke with Karim after the game and I gave him my card. We will see what happens but he is obviously a player I'd like to work with."

Stevens is hopeful that more scouts will watch Tromsø in another pre-season game on Friday.

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