Aston Villa are refusing to budge on their asking price for Christian Benteke partly because a percentage of any transfer fee must be sent to his former club Genk.

The Belgian side are due 15 per cent on any profit Villa make above the £7million price they paid for the striker in 2012.

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Aston Villa's Christian Benteke has cast transfer talk to one side to enjoy some downtime with his girlfriend

Benteke, 24, played a key role in helping Villa to retain their Premier League status last season

Genk could collect around £3.8m should a club trigger Benteke’s £32.5m release clause.

Liverpool maintain a strong interest but have so far insisted they will not pay that price for the player who scored 49 goals in 101 games for Villa. They are likely to offer Rickie Lambert or Fabio Borini as part-exchange options plus cash.

But Villa would look to extract the full amount of money to offset the portion allocated to Genk, and in order to reinvest in the playing squad.

Benteke's impressive scoring record in English football has caught the eye of several top clubs

Villa are reluctant to sell their star player and are demanding a huge £32.5million fee to let him leave

Benteke himself has made it clear that he is unwilling to sign an extension with Villa, but plenty of suitors are balking at the size of the price tag attached to him.

In forcing Benteke to run down his deal though, Villa are risking having an unhappy member of their squad next term.

Benteke joined Villa in 2012 for £7m from Genk and has since scored 49 goals in 99 games in English football.

With a record like that, in a team that has battled near the bottom of the table for the majority of recent seasons, it is no wonder that he has attracted plenty of interest from bigger sides.