Leicester City are the latest club reported to be showing interest in Panathinaikos striker Fotis Ioannidis, the subject of two rebuffed bids from the Blues.

As reported last week, the Blues’ offered a deal ultimately worth €25 million (£21.1 million), plus a sell-on of 15 per cent, to the Athens club for the Greece international, their second knocked-back bid for the 24-year-old.

A few days earlier, Italian reports had claimed Ioannidis’s agent had agreed personal terms with Bologna for the player but with no fee set with Panathinaikos.

The Serie A club are understood to have offered €18 million (€15.2 million) plus €2 million (£1.2 million) in add-ons. Another Serie A side, Lazio, could also be keen, according to a Greek report.

French side Lille were reported to have made a €21 million (£17.7 million) offer earlier that week, while Portuguese club Sporting CP had previously looked the favourites to land Ioannidis, however, they are now understood to be looking elsewhere with the fee Town offered higher than they could match.

It had been reported that another Premier League club was likely to join the hunt for the highly rated frontman and now SDNA reports that the Foxes are looking at his data and assessing whether they might be in a position to recruit the Greece international.

There has been little new on Town’s interest over the last week but it’s believed the Blues’ most recent bid remains on the table, although it’s likely other options are also being looked at.

Greek sources have indicated to TWTD that Panathinaikos will hope to get the bidding up towards the €30 million (£25.4 million) mark, a figure which would almost certainly be more than Town would be willing to spend on one player this summer.

Ioannidis was a youth player with Olympiacos Chalkida and Levadiakos before breaking into senior football with the latter late in 2018 and in August 2020, he joined Panathinaikos on a four-year deal.

Goals were hard to come by in his first three seasons with the Athens-based side, netting four, four and seven in the league in those campaigns.

Nevertheless, his form was good enough to see him win the first of his 11 full caps, in which he has scored two goals, in 2022, having already played at U18, U19 and U21 levels.

Last season, Ioannidis, whose father Vasilios also played professionally in Greece, netted 23 times and picked up nine assists in all competitions, 15 in the league, seven in Europe, as Panathinaikos narrowly missed out on the group stage of the Champions League before entering the Europa League.

Photo: Sipa USA

hoppy added 12:17 - Jul 2 I'm guessing Lazio would be favourites, as they could add a couple of friendlies in to get the deal over the line...
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blues1 added 12:35 - Jul 2 Not sure about the comment that we wouldnt be willing to spend £25m on one player. We've already spent £20m ( plus 2.5m add ons), on omari. So not sure we wouldnt spend that if we want a player that badly. Unless we csn get better value elsewhere.
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muccletonjoe added 12:44 - Jul 2 Imo AVOID . Look elesewhere
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Help added 12:45 - Jul 2 Move on
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carlo88 added 12:58 - Jul 2 Have to be careful to avoid paying ££££s for a player who really doesn't want to come here. (Unlike our previous record signing).
3

BlueySwede added 13:15 - Jul 2 If we haven´t lodged any new bids my feeling is that we will have moved on to other targets. Looks like a good player, but I really appreciate that Ashton & co stick to that we won't be held to ransom and jeopardise the club.
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BlueNomad added 13:21 - Jul 2 Oh well; his loss
2

JewellintheTown added 14:01 - Jul 2 Oh well. Was looking forward to shouting "Get it to the Greek".
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Juggsy added 16:23 - Jul 2 Leicester still spending money they haven’t got then …
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d77sgw added 16:28 - Jul 2 A lot of money for a player untested in English football and with one good season. Sure he's decent enough, but if we're going to spend that sort of money I would rather it is on someone with a longer track record and and some experience of UK football, but ideally at an age where we can improve them and retain value. At some point last season we were being linked with Jay Stansfield - he's still at Fulham I think? And would be available for a lot less than £20m surely.

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Gforce added 17:27 - Jul 2 Not a striker I know,but another player I would be looking at is Jack Clarke at Sunderland,I think he's available at around 12-15 million ,would be a great addition.
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Rozeeboy74 added 17:55 - Jul 2 Us older fans will appreciate the issue players like this can bring. I don't want to paint Ioannidis with the same brush as Matteo Sereni, Ulrich Le Pen and Finidi George, but I have reservations about players who have zero experience of the English game. Historically, it has not gone well. I hope (if he comes in) he is more of a Couñago or a Peralta. However, much as Sheepshanks and Burley brought success in the early millennium, and subsequent failure when we had money, McKenna and Ashton are another level.

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Tommy_ITFC added 19:04 - Jul 2 Cheats can jog on why would he join a team bound for relegation
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churchmans added 21:06 - Jul 2 PAOK fan I know reckons ioannidis is not worth 20mill let alone 25m
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oldelsworthyfan added 22:09 - Jul 2 I cannot believe we're interested in this guy!
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Blaggers12 added 23:34 - Jul 2 "Greek sources have indicated to TWTD" - someone's been down Lucky's Souvlaki!
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Tractor_Boy_in_HK added 05:25 - Jul 3 One good season, where most of his goals were from penalties...something isn't adding up in that valuation. But fair enough, Greek international means something.
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