Pontus Jansson announces he almost accepted stunning offer to join Krasnodar

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Leeds United’s Pontus Jansson has discussed the offer he received from Krasnodar.

Leeds United defender Pontus Jansson has told Fotbollskanalen in his native Sweden that he was very close to leaving the club to join FC Krasnodar this summer.

The Whites were mostly offloading dead wood this summer, in order to trim the squad for new boss Marcelo Bielsa, with the core of the side staying together after a disappointing season.

Leeds did though receive interest in Samu Saiz, and Expressen in Sweden recently claimed that defender Pontus Jansson had rejected a move away to Russian side Krasnodar.

Now, the defender has confirmed those reports, telling Fotbollskanalen that he weighed up the situation given that he is about to become a father again, but the on-field project with Leeds won out.

Jansson revealed that Krasnodar wanted him to replace compatriot Andreas Granqvist in defence, and offered him a huge contract which would have secured his future, but he simply couldn’t leave Elland Road – even if was ‘really close’.

“It just did not feel right,” said Jansson. “I’ll be a daddy in a month so I weighed it up. Clearly there was a lot of money and it would have secured my future, but the sporting project with Leeds and (Marcelo) Bielsa and this outweighed it. But it was not an easy decision. Krasnodar really wanted to replace Granqvist with me. It was really close, I thought about it, but I did not feel right. I wanted to finish with Leeds. I had a heavy season with the team last year and I did not want to finish my love like that,” he added.

The money on offer to make the move to Krasnodar was seemingly out of this world, leaving the former Malmo and Torino man to seriously consider departing Elland Road for life-changing terms.

With Bielsa at the helm at Elland Road and promotion very much the target, any big-name Leeds player would have been mad to leave this past summer – and fan favourite Jansson has surely made the right decision in a sporting sense.