Roma have withdrawn their interest in unsettled Leicester City star Riyad Mahrez after seeing several bids rejected by the Foxes, Goal can confirm.
The Italian side's transfer supremo Monchi will not continue his pursuit of the playmaker, who is said to be keen to leave the King Power Stadium.
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Leicester have insisted that they will not sell Mahrez until they receive a bid that matches their valuation, reportedly slapping a £40 million price tag on their star midfielder.
Roma had made a number of formal offers for the player - the last of which, at £32m, would have broken their transfer record.
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But the Foxes refused to budge, turning down the offer as they had previously with approaches worth £20m and £27m.
The Premier League side's intransigence now puts Mahrez in a delicate situation, as those close to the Algeria international have made no secret of the fact that he wishes to depart.
Leicester, however, have continued to treat their star as a member of the first team and manager Craig Shakespeare selected him for Friday's Premier League opener against Arsenal.
Last week, Monchi admitted that Roma were unlikely to further increase their offer despite their need to replace Mohamed Salah, who left for Liverpool, ahead of this weekend's Serie A kick-off.
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"In the last press conference I said we had bid what we believe to be a fair offer, which is also the biggest in the club’s history," the ex-Sevilla director explained.
"We won’t bid again. We've conducted ourselves in the right way by talking to Leicester City. Now the ball is in their court."
Mahrez has been at Leicester for three-and-a-half years since moving from Ligue 2 side Le Havre back in January 2013.
The Algerian has scored a total of 35 goals in 139 appearances in all competitions and played an integral role in clinching an historic Premier League title under Claudio Ranieri in 2015-16.
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