£18.2m-rated centre-forward pushes to quit Euro club with Leeds keen on summer swoop – report
Stuttgart striker Nicolas Gonzalez is pushing to quit the German club this summer amid interest from Leeds United, according to Kicker.
The German magazine claims that a number of Italian clubs are also interested in 22-year-old Gonzalez, who scored 15 goals in 29 appearances across all competitions this season.
It is understood that AC Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio, Napoli and Roma are all keen on the Argentina international, as well as newly-promoted Leeds.
With Gonzalez keen to quit Stuttgart, Kicker reports that the returning Bundesliga club want around £18.2million for the 5ft 11 striker.
It remains to be seen what players Marcelo Bielsa wants to add to his squad this summer ahead of Leeds’ first season in the Premier League in 16 years.
Patrick Bamford, as it stands, is the club’s only out-and-out striker in the first-team but Tyler Roberts can also play in that role, as well as Jean-Kevin Augustin, who no one seems to know for sure if he’ll be back at Elland Road next season.
Gonzalez seems like he knows how to find the back of the net based on his goalscoring record this term for Stuttgart and interest from teams like Napoli, Inter and Roma says a lot about his attributes.
Gonzalez’s former coach at Argentinos, Alfredo Berti, has previously said that the Stuttgart striker reminds him of Argentina legend Mario Kempes while he’s also been said to have “the pace, finesse, intelligent movement and classy left foot” of Real Madrid legend Raul.
They are certainly good reasons to be excited by Gonzalez but as of now, Leeds might have other priorities in the transfer market as one or two centre-backs may be the main thing on Victor Orta’s mind.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites are the only team with “serious” interest in this centre-back.