Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

Mainz open to big Leicester offer for Shinji Okazaki

Mainz would consider selling attacker Shinji Okazaki should Leicester City make an improved bid for the Japan international.

Okazaki, 28, has scored 23 goals for Mainz since joining the club from Stuttgart in the summer of 2013, and has netted eight in 16 Bundesliga games this season.

Only Frankfurt's Alex Meier, Bayern Munich attacker Arjen Robben and Schalke's Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting are ahead of Okazaki in the Bundesliga scoring charts midway through the season.

However, it is still unclear whether the Japan international will add more to his Bundesliga tally of 33 goals for Stuttgart and Mainz upon his return from the Asian Cup in Australia.

Last week, Mainz turned down an offer of 10 million euros from Leicester, and the German club's sporting director Christian Heidel has now said that they could reconsider selling the attacker should the Foxes make a new bid.

"Should they all of a sudden offer 15 or 20 million euros, we'd need to reconsider," Heidel said in quotes reported by Bild.

However, the Mainz chief admitted that signing a replacement for Okazaki during the winter might be a problem, adding: "The top 20 of the German scorer charts have pretty much no reason to join Mainz.

"That's why you have to look abroad -- but that means problems with language and settling in. There is no guarantee that this works out."

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