You have to be a unique sort of attacker to really thrive at Leeds United. Physical, but full of finesse. Bullish, but with the elegance of a ballerina.
Hamed Junior Traore, then, is not only well suited to life in the Premier League, but life at Leeds too.
“I wouldn’t mind (trying a new challenge abroad),” Sassuolo’s Ivory Coast international tells Gazzeta di Modena. “The best leagues for me would be the Bundesliga or the Premier League.”
One thing the respective top flights of Germany and England have in common, of course, is their intensity; football played at a breakneck speed.
And Leeds United, under Marcelo Bielsa and now Jesse Marsch, take that approach to an all-new level. Intensity to the Nth degree. At their free-flowing, chest-thumping best, there is not a more exhausting team to watch in the whole of England’s top flight than one who ran Chelsea into the ground and very nearly did the same to league leaders Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
Hamed Junior Traore could be perfect for Leeds United
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, 22-year-old Traore earned himself a place on Leeds’ transfer wishlist over the summer. Despite suffering a metatarsal injury in pre-season – one that has restricted him to just 25 minutes of Serie A football this term – the elder brother of Manchester United’s Amad remains on Leeds’ radar.
“I was amazed (when I first saw him),” says former AC Milan ace Giovanni Galli of the £21 million-rated Traore. “When I saw him, he was playing as a mezzala but with an extraordinary physical strength and technical control.
“Even then, he had a great personality and in recent years he has grown a lot in this respect. I believe that he is ready to play in a great team like Milan and to face prestigious stages like that of the Champions League. He is a boy born to take responsibility on the pitch.”
‘Extraordinary’ physical strength? The ability to play as a central midfielder or out wide, cutting in onto his right-foot before curling shots into the far corner like a reverse Raphinha? The desire to play Premier League football at some point in the future?
There are certainly a lot of reasons why Leeds like Hamed Junior Traore.
And with Mateusz Klich’s future uncertain, with Marsch’s new-look midfield lacking genuine competition to places and with top target Cody Gakpo resisting their advances, Traore’s Premier League admission may be all the encouragement Leeds need to turn their interest into something more concrete in the New Year.
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