Shakhtar Donetsk will sell Mykola Matviyenko for £20 million with Leeds United, Everton, West Ham and Wolverhampton Wanderers all interested in the Ukrainian international, according to 90Min.
If there are two areas of Leeds’ squad that need reinforcement with just over a fortnight to go until their first Premier League fixture in 16 years, it is at centre-half and left-back.
Matviyenko, a 24-year-old powerhouse of a defender, would not only give Marcelo Bielsa the natural left-sided option that he is crying out for, he would also provide some much-needed cover for captain Liam Cooper in the middle.
And it seems only a matter of time before he follows in the footsteps of Fred, Fernandinho, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and more.
The 26-time international helped Shakhtar win yet another Ukrainian title as well as reach the Europa League semi-finals in 2019/20, with his performances also catching the eye of clubs such as RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Napoli.
In the Premier League, Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton and David Moyes’ West Ham are interested too.
With Wolves having lost Jonny Castro Otto for a number of months after a knee operation, Matviyenko has been lined up by the Black Country giants as the man capable of taking the stricken Spaniard’s place in Nuno Espirito Santo’s starting XI.
Left-sided centre-halves do not exactly grow on trees so, while Matviyenko is hardly proven at the top level, there is a reason why he is turning heads all over the continent.
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