Bornauw signs for Leeds as Firpo departs
Tuesday, 1st Jul 2025 21:29 by Tim Whelan
As we move into a new financial year and some player’s contracts expire, it was a case of one in one out at Elland Road today. The club confirmed the signing of centre-back Sebastiaan Bornauw, but also that Junior Firpo is moving on, and that Manor Solomon and Joe Rothwell won’t be extending their stay at the club.
26-year-old Bornauw is joining Leeds for a fee described as “undisclosed” on the club’s official website, and “£5.2m” in the Athletic. If that fee sounds like a bit of a bargain by today’s standards, it will doubtless be because he only had one year left on his contract at German club VfL Wolfsburg.
The move is still subject to international clearance, but hopefully that will be a formality. He has signed a four-year contract at Elland Road and at 6ft 3in. tall he should be well equipped to handle the physical demands of the Premier League. He has been described as ‘An obelisk-like centre-back’, but one concern will be his recent injury record, as he managed fewer than 800 minutes in the Bundesliga last season.
He began his career with Anderlecht in his native Belgium, before moving on to Köln in 2019 and then Wolfsburg two seasons later. In total he has made140 appearances in the Bundesliga to his name, as well as playing in the Europa and Champions Leagues, not to mention earning dfour caps for the Belgian national side.
It is a little surprising that Leeds have moved for another central defender, as that means we now have four at the club, even if we assume that Wöber is likely to be on his way quite soon. Inevitably this has caused some speculation on the message boards that Struijk is also likely to be departing, not least because that would be handy for PSR purposes, given that any transfer fee we receive for him would be pure profit.
Most of us expected the club to be moving for players in a few other positions that we regarded as higher priorities’. One of which is left back, although the Athletic are suggesting that one name in the frame is Gabriel Gudmundsson of Lille. His recruitment looks even more essential now that it has been confirmed that Junior Firpo has left the club after his contract expired yesterday.
The club have wished our cult hero well, saying : “Thank you and good luck, champion. You will always be welcome back at Elland Road.” In his four seasons in West Yorkshire Firpo made 119 appearances for the club and scored six goals, thanks to his ability to pop up anywhere on the pitch.
But while it was fine to play like that while we dominated games in the Championship, he would always be liable to be exposed if he played like that in the Premier League, and none of us were that confident in his defensive ability anyway. Last week he posted a picture of himself wearing a Real Betis shirt, and the word is that the Seville club is his most likely destination.
It was also confirmed today that Manor Solomon and Joe Rothwell, will be returning to their parent clubs as their season-long loans officially came to an end. The official site said that “The duo will be forever remembered for their influential involvement in helping the Whites return to the Premier League as champions of the second tier”.
There was no word of any move to extend Rothwell’s time at the club, and it was probably felt that although he his a handy player at the top end of the Championship, he’s not quite up to the standard needed in the Premier League. But it was reported that we did make a bit to convert Solomon’s loan into a permanent transfer.
However, new Spurs manager Thomas Frank wanted to have a look at Solomon before making a decision on his future, so blocked any possible sale for the time being. The player was stuck in Israel after returning to his native country for his wedding, due to the outbreak of hostilities with Iran, but has now managed to get back to London.
There is still plenty of work going on behind the scenes, and no doubt there will be more news on the transfer front in the very near future.
_Reuters_
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