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Kjetil Haug suggests Valerenga team-mate Kristoffer Klaesson is joining Leeds United
Valerenga goalkeeper Kjetil Haug has suggested that Leeds United are set to sign his team-mate Kristoffer Klaesson.
It has been widely reported that Klaesson, 20, has arrived in England to put the finishing touches to a move to Elland Road, where he’ll serve as Marcelo Bielsa’s new second-choice goalkeeper [Nettavisen].
In an interview with Norwegian newspaper Nettavisen, 23-year-old Haug has been asked about Klaesson’s imminent move to Leeds with it looking as though he’s now set to become Valerenga’s new number one.
“The club made a choice to prioritize Klaesson in order to sell him on, and now it seems that it will become a reality,” Haug said. “Should the club get a new goalkeeper who is going to stand, then I will not be a Vålerenga player much longer. It is now or never for me. “
He added: “I have taken the opportunity to ask them what will happen, if they sell Kristoffer. Then they have been clear that it is I who gets the responsibility, but you never know.
“It would have been disappointing if they now choose to look around for other options when I have waited so long.
“The best thing for me would have been to get rid of him, not because I have anything against him, but I need to play. I told him that too, ‘get away’.”
Haug, who was on the books at Manchester City between 2014 and 2018, was then asked how Klaesson would cope in English football at Leeds.
He responded by saying: “I think he’s going to get a little shock, to be completely honest.
“It will be a slightly different everyday life, without so many friends and the comfortable environment around you.
“You enter a performance environment on a completely different level than here, where the competition feels even more on the body.”
All but confirmed
Based on the questions that Haug was asked and the way he answered them, it’s fairly obvious to deduce that he knows Klaesson he’s joining Leeds.
Nettavisen even said prior to one part of Haug’s interview that “Haug knows much of what awaits the 20-year-old in Leeds”.
Leeds have not waited around too long to find a replacement for Kiko Casilla after he was loaned out to Elche earlier this month.
Klaesson may be young at the age of 20 but he’s already been called up to the Norway national team and played over 50 times for Valerenga.
He’s not your average 20-year-old goalkeeper, let’s put it that way.
The soon-to-be Leeds player will likely serve as Bielsa’s second-choice next season, meaning that Bielsa has a very youthful array of goalkeeping talent on his hands.
As we all know, goalkeepers usually hit their peak in their 30s and both Klaesson and Meslier, 21, are far from that.
Meslier is still learning so will he miss the experience that someone like Casilla could have relayed to him in training at Thorp Arch?
We’ll have to wait and see but Bielsa surely has faith in his goalkeeping coaches to continue getting the best out of Meslier and, soon, Klaesson.
In other Leeds United news, Bielsa can save Andrea Radrizzani millions after what he was heard saying about this Whites ace.