Castellanos could be sold to Leeds United in June by New York City
New York City striker Valentin Castellanos could be sold to Leeds United in June, according to TN Deportivo.
The Argentinean news outlet reports that River Plate are unable to afford a move to sign the 23-year-old, who won the 2021 MLS Golden Boot award.
It is understood that River held a “final meeting” yesterday [16 February] as they discussed a deal to sign Castellanos but the move seems to have broken down due to the financial aspects of a deal. The chances of a move for the Argentina Under-23 striker are said to be 99 per cent for River.
River’s last offer was reportedly £3.6million rising up to £8.8million. La Pagina Millionaria has recently claimed the Whites are prepared to pay £10million for Castellanos.
Summer options
The summer transfer window may seem like a million miles away right now but there’s no doubt that Victor Orta and his recruitment staff are working on potential targets.
Marcelo Bielsa is not an easy manager to please and while it remains to be seen whether he’ll still be in charge at Elland Road come next season, it’s still best to look at transfer targets who he would approve of.
Castellanos is a goal machine.
He helped fire New York City, Jack Harrison’s former club, to the MLS title in 2021 by scoring 22 goals and supplying eight assists in 35 league appearances for The Bronx club.
The ex-Montevideo City Torque player was also dubbed “fantastic” by his manager Ronny Deila earlier this week [MLS Soccer] and he’s been compared to Chelsea legend Didier Drogba [MEN].
Castellanos is still relatively young at the age of 23 and may have a future in the Argentinean national team based on his form and the fact he’s been playing for their Under-23s.
We’ve seen a lot of Argentinean players linked with Leeds because Bielsa is our manager but he’s never signed a single one of his fellow compatriots.
Still, Castellanos could be an option to support Patrick Bamford but we could have done with a striker being signed in January due to the England international’s injury woes.
In other Leeds United news, Graham Smyth has dropped a big update on Stuart Dallas’ injury.