Ruud van Nistelrooy, the manager of Leicester City, gave Foxes followers a rare glimmer of hope by announcing that an agreement with the club’s promising talent Jeremy Monga is nearing finalization.
The talented forward became the second-ever 15-year-old to play in the Premier League when he debuted against Newcastle United back in April. Monga was slightly older by three months than Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri—who set the record in 2022—but unlike the Arsenal prodigy, Leicester’s star has played over an hour of Premier League football this season.
Even before Monga became Leicester’s youngest Premier League player, both Manchester City and Chelsea reportedly showed significant interest in him. The Athletic also reported that Real Madrid had previously expressed interest in the remarkable record-setter.
Van Nistelrooy did his best to downplay this growing speculation earlier in the season and struck an even more confident tone in the aftermath of Monga’s latest cameo against Nottingham Forest.
“We want a future with him and hoping we can announce a contract with him soon,” Van Nistelrooy told talkSPORT.
The Dutch boss turned to the topic of Monga again in his post-match press conference. “If he can stay and this is his future, and he can make minutes and build him into his pathway,” Van Nistelrooy noted. “I have had many conversations with him and his family and hopefully he can sign soon. But it is up to him.
“It is a joy to work with him. We sometimes talk about his GCSEs and mathematics, and I have to help him with that also, but then we talk about football also. He nearly scored a winner here also. That would have been a fairytale.”
Deep into stoppage time of Leicester’s 2-2 draw with local rivals Forest at the City Ground, Jamie Vardy led one last counter-attack which ended with the ball at Monga’s feet. The teen, who had seen an earlier effort blocked, rifled a shot on target which Mats Sels tipped over.
If Monga is to stick with already-relegated Leicester, he will only have two remaining games to become the youngest scorer in Premier League history. Should the 15-year-old join another top-flight side, he would overtake James Vaughan’s long-standing record with a goal at any time before 5 April 2026.
