According to Pete O’Rourke, writing for Football Insider, Leeds United are actively seeking to sell high-earning stopper Kiko Casilla.
The 32-year-old only arrived at Elland Road in the middle of January this year, rocking up at the West Yorkshire club from none other than Real Madrid. He even arrived on a kind of free transfer, Leeds having said to have paid up the remainder of his contract.
He was a 140-game La Liga keeper, a sopper with 66 games of LaLiga 2 appearances and five Champions League appearances for Los Blancos during his time at the Santiago Bernabeu. With that pedigree, he stepped straight into the Leeds United line-up – installed as the club’s #1.
However, high-profile errors, a tendency to rush from his box and trying to play as a holding midfielder saw many fans turn against him. Suddenly the cachet from once being Real Mardid’s #2 meant nothing.
O’Rourke, citing what he calls a “Leeds source” says that the Whites are ready to cut their losses with Casilla. He states that this source has informed Football Insider that the “club are not only ready to listen to offers for Casilla but they are actively seeking a club willing to take him off their hands.”
The Spaniard signed a four-and-a-half year deal when arriving from Real, meaning that there is effectively four years of that deal left to run. It was a deal that shot him to the top earners at the West Yorkshire club, a reported pay packet of around £30,000-a-week.
Failure to achieve promotion is said to mean that shedding Casilla is seen as almost an imperative at Leeds United. It’s likely that a return to his homeland would be the preferred route for the former Real Madrid man, although it would have to be a top-flight side that took him on what with his wage demands.
Until then, Kiko Casilla is a Leeds United man and he played the full game against York City in last night’s emphatic 5-0 win.
