Luis Sinisterra’s £18 million move to Premier League outfit Leeds United has come as no surprise to the Colombia international’s former Feyenoord team-mate Cyriel Dessers, speaking to De Telegraaf.
If you’d told Feyenoord supporters in the summer of 2021 that Sinisterra would be on his way to England for nearly £20 million 12 months later, you’d have been laughed out of Rotterdam.
The winger’s transformation from struggling youngster to a paid-up member of the Eredivisie elite, then, comes with a caveat. Was a remarkable 2021/22 campaign a flash in the pan? Sinisterra’s 23 goals in all competitions came after he found the net just five times the year before.
Or has the penny dropped? Was a stunning, coming-of-age season confirmation of what Feyenoord saw in him when signing the then-teenage Sinisterra back in 2018? That this was a winger with the talent, the potential and the stirring skill to make his mark at a far higher level?
Luis Sinisterra joins Leeds United for £18 million
“I am not at all surprised that Luis was sold for a record amount,” Dessers says after his former De Kuip sparring partner replaced Dirk Kuyt as the most expensive footballer in Feyenoord’s history.
“Players of his qualities are expensive these days. If you look at his qualities and statistics, they justify such a large fee.
“I am happy that Feyenoord earned a large fee for him such as this, because they deserve that too.”
Two-footed, adaptable and blessed with a penchant for producing something rather special out of very little, Sinisterra is the most exciting – and expensive – of Leeds’ summer additions. Whether he can emulate the immediate impact Raphinha made on English soil, however, remains to be seen.
Raphinha scored just seven goals in his final season at Rennes before joining Leeds. That is 16 less than Sinisterra mustered for the UEFA Conference League runners’ up. Though, it must be said, history is littered with Eredivisie imports who struggled to live up to expectations in England.
Memphis Depay, anyone?
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