Medical soon: Leeds 21y/o on verge of loan exit with deal to be finalised – report
Young Leeds United striker Rafa Mujica is on the verge of joining Real Oviedo on loan, according to El Comercio.
The Spanish newspaper has reported on their website that ex-Barcelona forward Mujica, 21, is set for a medical with the Segunda Division club before finalising the deal to officially join them on loan.
Mujica is one of several young players from Spain that Victor Orta has signed during his spell as Leeds’ director of football.
Oriol Rey, Adrian Balboa and Kun Temenuzhkov are examples of players who’ve risen through the ranks in youth football in Spain before heading to England but not really being able to cement a solid spot in the Under-23s, let alone the first-team.
Mujica is in a similar boat but he spent last season out on loan at Extremadura and Villarreal.
In the first half of last season, Mujica played for Extremadura in the Spanish second-tier but failed to start a single league game, scoring zero goals in his seven appearances off the bench.
El Periodico Extremadura reported in January that Mujica was so frustrated by one of his performances for Extremadura that he left the stadium in tears before his loan deal there was terminated.
After that, Mujica joined Villarreal to play for their B team for the rest of the season and that was definitely a good move for the youngster as he scored four goals in seven appearances before the season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. One of those goals came against Barcelona’s B team too.
Speaking in April, Mujica said that he wants to play for Leeds but with him set to join Real Oviedo, it means that he has a second crack at trying to impress in Spain’s second-tier.
Hopefully the centre-forward’s spell at Oviedo goes better than his spell at Extremadura did but that purple patch of form at Villarreal suggested there could be a player in there for Leeds fans to be excited about in the future.
For now, let’s just hope that Mujica can at least get plenty of game-time for a historic Spanish club that helped spark the careers of Santi Cazorla, Juan Mata and Michu.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites want to sign this EFL forward.