Leicester City: Foxes confident of keeping Riyad Mahrez despite rising interest from European giants

Leicester City are confident Riyad Mahrez will remain at the King Power Stadium beyond the current summer despite generating interest from top clubs across Europe with his performances for the Premier League champions this season. Claudio Ranieri and the Foxes' vice-chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha believe the midfielder will stay, with the latter confirming the player's admission to wanting to remain with the club next season.

The Algeria international has been a revelation this campaign scoring 17 goals and providing 11 assists to help Leicester to the Premier League title. He was also crowned the PFA player of the year last month, which has made him one of the hottest prospects in the Premier League.

Arsenal, Manchester United and Spanish giants Barcelona have been credited with interest in signing Mahrez, who is rated at around £20m - £25m ($29m - $36m), in the summer. Moreover, his future at the club was thrown into doubt when his agent recently admitted that there was just a 50-50 chance of him staying with or leaving the newly crowned English champions.

The club, however, have moved quickly to pour cold water on the speculation regarding his future insisting that the midfielder was happy to stay with the club as they embark on a new journey which will see them compete with the European elite in the Champions League next season.

"It's 99 per cent he [Mahrez] will stay," Ranieri said, ahead of their clash against Everton on Saturday (7 May). "I'm very, very confident. I suggest to all my players, 'Stay one year more. Don't go. If you go to another team, you might not get on the pitch'."

"They are good boys. They are good lads. They understand. Even Mahrez, I talked to him and said, 'Are you concerned?'. He said, 'No, no, I want to stay'. This is what he wants. He wants to stay," Srivaddhanaprabha added, as quoted by Sky Sports.