Leeds United landed something of a coup over the summer, as they won the race to sign defender Robin Koch from Freiburg.
The Whites failed to bring Ben White to the club permanently after a superb loan spell from Brighton and Hove Albion, and had to look for alternatives.
Their search took them to Koch, and they ended up paying just £11.5million to sign him, with the deal potentially rising to £13million.
Koch has shown promise in the Premier League, particularly in terms of bringing the ball out from the back, but he is currently out through injury.
Leeds weren’t the only team in for Koch; Leipzig were also keen having failed with a January move to lure him away from Freiburg, as reported by Bild.
Leeds ended up winning the race, leaving Leipzig disappointed – and their managing director Oliver Mintzlaff has now hinted at missing out on Koch.
Mintzlaff suggested to Sportbuzzer that Leipzig missed out on a German defender in the Bundesliga by just a few million euros, with boss Julian Nagelsmann kiboshing a deal.
Koch missed out on a Champions League move, but is now in the Premier League – and will ultimately hope to play in Europe’s premier club competition one day.
“When we wanted to get a German central defender out of the Bundesliga last winter, our asking price was X and the price was three or four million euros higher. Julian said of his own accord that it would then be too expensive and he understands that we cannot do it. I can’t think of the name right now,” he joked when asked who the player was.
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