The Leeds United vice-captain will enter the final year of his contract this summer.
Pascal Struijk has thanked Leeds United fans for making the players ‘believe, fight and dream’ during an impressive Premier League return.
Leeds went into the 2025/26 campaign aiming for anything above 18th and achieved their goal with flying colours. The Whites were mathematically safe with three games to spare and despite losing 3-0 at West Ham on the final day, finished 14th on 47 points.
Struijk played a significant role in that brilliant season, with captain Ethan Ampadu the only teammate boasting more than his 33 top-flight starts. The Dutchman didn’t manage to get in on the goals but was involved in the keeping of seven clean sheets.
In an end-of-season post on Instagram, full of pictures from across the last few months, Struijk wrote: “What a season it’s been. Thank you for making us believe, fight and dream together.”
Struijk is among a handful of players with an important decision to make this summer. The 26-year-old will enter the final year of his Elland Road contract in July amid uncertainty over his long-term future.
Leeds received interest in Struijk last summer and are expected to do so again, following an impressive Premier League season. Having arrived for virtually nothing back in 2018, the centre-back would generate serious profit for a team chairman Paraag Marathe admitted will sell, as well as buy.
Big Leeds United decisions on the horizon this summer
"We remain ambitious but measured and deliberate, understanding that it will take three long-fought seasons before we can truly operate like an established Premier League side,” Marathe said in a message to fans this week. "This summer, instead of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), the Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) will impact our transfer market approach.
“As our accounts reflect, we spent every penny possible, as promised, to earn promotion and keep the club in the Premier League. Our approach to the transfer market will once again be strategic and disciplined to comply with regulations while striving further to improve, and players will both arrive and depart as a result."
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But any exit would also be a big risk, particularly given the solid three-man relationship he’s formed with Jaka Bijol and Joe Rodon. Struijk is also a key dressing room figure as the squad’s longest-serving player and vice captain.
Speaking to the YEP this week, former Leeds striker Jermaine Beckford expressed his desire to keep Struijk and another key player entering their final contract year. He said: “Pascal Struijk and Ethan Ampadu, both of them have been absolutely fantastic this season.
“You look at the strides they both made, the level of quality of performance they both put in, how robust both of them seem to be. I want to see them both stay. I desperately want to see them both stay.”
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