Victor Orta has identified and signed some absolutely fantastic players since joining Leeds United as their Director of Football.
Raphinha, Joe Gelhardt and Illan Meslier have all proven to be absolute gems and savvy signings, but perhaps the most talented player identified by Orta as a star of the future was one that got away.
Indeed, Leeds’ failure to sign Josko Gvardiol in the summer of 2020 may be one they forever live to regret.
As the story goes, Leeds had made a big-money offer to sign Gvardiol in 2020. The defender’s agent confirmed the Whites’ interest and according to one report, Leeds even made a bigger offer than RB Leipzig – the club Gvardiol would eventually end up joining.
Of course, sadly for the Yorkshire outfit, Gvardiol ended up in Germany, and since then, he’s gone on to show Leeds exactly what they’ve missed out on.
The Croatian has established himself as an absolute superstar in Germany. His presence in the defence has meant that Leipzig have barely missed either Dayot Upamecano or Ibrahima Konate this season, and he’s now being linked with a big-money move to either Tottenham or Chelsea.
However, if Gvardiol is to finally head to the Premier League, he won’t come cheaply.
According to CIES, Gvardiol is actually the 2nd-most valuable defender on the planet right now, with The Football Observatory’s research leading them to the conclusion that Gvardiol is worth €99.8m (£90m). To put that into some context, only Ruben Dias ranks higher in terms of value amongst defenders on this list.
Leeds were incredibly close to signing Gvardiol for just over £20m back in 2020, but now, two years on, his value has skyrocketed, and he’s still only 20 years old.
Failing to sign Gvardiol may go down as one of Leeds’ great transfer mistakes.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
