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Cody Gakpo made 'great choice' snubbing Leeds United summer interest - World Cup teammate
Leeds United came frustratingly close to signing Cody Gakpo in the summer, but Dutch teammate Marten De Roon thinks the striker made a great choice staying put.
Leeds were desperately searching around for a new striker in the summer, and the club’s top target appeared to be PSV forward Gakpo.
According to Fabrizio Romano Leeds had a deal agreed with Gakpo but he stayed put at PSV after Dutch manager Louis van Gaal suggested it was his best chance of making the World Cup squad.
Three months down the line, Gakpo has now scored three World Cup goals in as many games and has likely seen his asking price double for teams interested in January.
Gakpo’s Netherlands teammate De Roon has told Italian outlet Gazzetta that he believes the 23-year-old striker made a “great choice” to stay put in the summer.
“He’s in great shape, he was already playing well in Holland. In the summer there were many rumours that he would go to a big one,” said De Roon.
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“In the end he stayed, perhaps also to have more chances in the national team. I think he made a great choice. He will play a great tournament and then it will be very difficult for PSV to keep him.”
Agonising
Watching Gakpo scoring with ease in Qatar has only rubbed salt in Leeds wounds.
Jesse Marsch made it blatantly clear to the Leeds board that he wanted a striker in the summer and they almost delivered the American his top target if it wasn’t for a cruel twist of fate in the final hours of Deadline Day.
Instead, the Whites can pretty much kiss any chance of signing Gakpo goodbye after his impressive performances in Qatar. The entirety of Europe will now be queueing up for his signature and any chance of a similarly priced deal is out of the equation.
It’s agonising to think what could have been at Elland Road this season if Gakpo had signed. Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson have both proved to be superb signings made by Marsch, and it seems as though Gakpo would have joined them by being immediate stars in Yorkshire.
Leeds United’s striker search instead saw them land Wilfried Gnonto – who in fairness has been impressive since his summer move – but he was never going to become a regular first-team striker like Gakpo would have been.
In other Leeds United news, Tyler Adams footage emerges showing exactly why he was named USMNT captain