Wales ‘keeper Ward signs a new Foxes deal
WALES goalkeeper Danny Ward has signed a new four-year contract with Leicester.
The 27-year-old, signed from Liverpool for £12m in 2018, was heading towards the final year of his original deal at the King Power Stadium but has now extended until 2025.
Ward is still waiting to make his Premier League debut for the club with Kasper Schmeichel ever-present since his arrival, the deputy among the substitutes for all of those games.
He has played in cup competitions though, featuring 14 times across the Carabao Cup, FA Cup, and Europa League, keeping eight clean sheets.
His standout moments came in his first season, when his penalty shootout heroics against Wolves and Southampton took City into the quarterfinals of the League Cup.
For his goalkeeping quality and his patience, he is very highly-rated by manager Brendan Rodgers, who has described him as a “number one”.
“I think he knows it’s not because of his quality,” Rodgers said on Ward’s wait for a first Premier League appearance. “I have total trust in Danny if anything ever happened to Kasper.
“I’m very fortunate here where I believe I have a number one goalkeeper as my number two.
“I knew Danny when he was a young goalkeeper at Liverpool, I knew his qualities then, he went and got experience at Aberdeen, did great at Huddersfield, and I think Leicester did great in getting him here.
“He’s very competitive. He will want the opportunities, but he’s also respectful, and he’s been a very loyal number two in his time here.
“Anytime he’s played, he’s been a class act.
“He trains hard every day, and in any top club, if you want to be competitive, you certainly need at least two top goalkeepers and for me, I’m very fortunate here with the group of goalkeepers that I have, and in particular with Danny, who I see as a number one goalkeeper.”