Roma refuse obligation to buy demand in talks for Leeds United ace Rasmus Kristensen – Gianluca Di Marzio
Roma are refusing to agree to an obligation to buy clause in their bid to sign Rasmus Kristensen from Leeds, according to Gianluca Di Marzio.
The Danish defender signed for the Elland Road club last summer in a £12m deal, but has emerged as a target for Jose Mourinho following the club’s relegation to the Championship.
Now according to Di Marzio (27 June), the deal will be for a flat loan or a loan with an option to buy “at most” because of how much an obligation clause would likely cost after fresh talks on Tuesday with Tiago Pinto.
“For Kristensen, on the other hand, they work for a flat loan or at most with a redemption option” he wrote (27 June).
“We are moving towards the exclusion of the obligation, also because last year the acquisition of the Dane from Salzburg cost around 15 million euros (£12m) to Leeds.”
Sensible
Kristensen had a tough debut season at Leeds last year and eventually lost his place in the side to Luke Ayling before being moved into a central defensive position.
He showed his quality in patches, and he is still a regular for the Denmark national team despite the troubles at Leeds this season.
With Euro 2024 on the horizon it’s clear that Kristensen wants to play regularly at a high level, and he won’t be able to do that in the Championship.
Roma provide the opportunity to do just that and give him a chance to play under a world class manager, so it’s no surprise he is open to the move.
But the club are being sensible by not agreeing to a cut-price deal as he could still have a future at the club with so much time remaining on his contract. Let him go to get game time elsewhere and put in a big buy clause in case he does go, but if not the door is still open for his return.
In other Leeds news, £5m obligation clause emerges as club want to sign Leeds ace on loan.