Leeds wanted to sign a star who’s now worth £152m, they landed Grot instead

Leeds United suffered their first defeat of the Championship season on Saturday as they were beaten 1-0 by recently relegated Burnley at Elland Road.

Luca Koleosho scored the only goal of the game in the first half, racing down the right wing before lashing a strike into the bottom corner, but things could have been so different had the Whites taken their chances.

Mateo Joseph missed a huge opportunity to open the scoring in the first few minutes of the match, firing wide after going one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Wilfried Gnonto struck straight at James Trafford after being slipped through on goal by Brenden Aaronson.

The centre-forward position for Leeds has been handed to Joseph so far this season but the youngster still has more to prove before he can be considered a reliable option for Daniel Farke.

A return of one goal and two assists in five Championship appearances so far is not spectacular. However, the Spain U21 international has plenty of time to develop and improve over the weeks and months to come.

They will be hoping that he develops more than one of their former centre-forward prospects, Jay-Roy Grot, did during his time at Elland Road.

Jay-Roy Grot’s Leeds struggles

In the summer of 2017, Thomas Christiansen swooped to sign the Netherlands U19 international from Eredivisie outfit NEC Nijmegen on a permanent deal.

The 19-year-old striker had racked up six goals in 35 appearances in all competitions for the Dutch side, which convinced the Whites to bring him to West Yorkshire.

He had scored five goals in 20 Eredivisie outings during the 2016/17 campaign and arrived as a promising young striker with potential to improve.

As you can see in the table above, Grot was unable to make an instant impact in his first season in the Championship with Leeds, with a return of one goal in 20 appearances.

The young forward was then sent out on loan to VVV-Venlo and Vitesse in the Netherlands for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 campaigns, before being allowed to join VfL Osnabrück on a free transfer in 2021.

This shows that his time at Elland Road was a struggle, as he did not perform on the pitch and left for nothing, whilst the player they wanted to sign before they landed Grot has gone on to flourish in a big away.

Leeds United’s attempt to sign Erling Haaland

In the summer of 2017, before a deal was agreed to bring Grot to the club, Leeds made an attempt to sign Erling Haaland from Molde at the age of 17.

The teenager, born in Leeds, was reportedly a supporter of the club at the time, whilst playing for Molde, and his agent offered him to Victor Orta.

Haaland travelled over to West Yorkshire, where he was born, and met with Orta to discuss a potential move to Elland Road, going as far as to have a shirt with his name on it created.

Agent Hayden Evans has since revealed that Haaland and his team were impressed by manager Thomas Christiansen and that they wanted to get a deal over the line.

However, Molde were demanding a fee of £4m for the 17-year-old centre-forward and Leeds were not in a stable financial position, which meant that they were not willing to gamble that kind of fee on a teenage striker who would not be a guaranteed first-team player for the club.

Interestingly, Evans added that the young number nine went to Elland Road later that season to be in the away end at Queens Park Rangers as a Christmas present.

Whilst it is understandable that they did not want to spend £4m on an unproven 17-year-old as a Championship club, Orta and Leeds may look back on that decision with huge regret given what Haaland has achieved since that summer.

Erling Haaland’s current market value

At the time of writing (19/09/2024), Transfermartk has the Norway international’s current market value at €180m (£152m) and that is quite a leap from the £4m the Whites could have paid for him seven years ago.

After Leeds opted against a move for the young marksman, Haaland scored 16 goals and provided five assists in 30 matches during the 2018 campaign for Molde.

That earned him a move to RB Salzburg in January 2019 and the centre-forward went on to plunder an incredible 29 goals and seven assists in 27 games for the Austrian club.

The prolific forward then moved to Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga and racked up 86 goals and 23 assists in 89 outings for the German side.

If that did not make Orta and Leeds start to regret not snapping him up for £4m then his subsequent move to Manchester City and success in the Premier League certainly will have.

Haaland has produced a staggering 99 goals in 104 appearances in all competitions for Pep Guardiola since his transfer to England in the summer of 2022, five years on from his move to Elland Road broke down.

As you can see in the table above, the 24-year-old superstar has been incredibly prolific in the Premier League over the last two years or so, winning the Golden Boot in both of his full seasons so far.

He also fired in 12 goals in 11 games in the Champions League in the 2022/23 campaign, as City won the competition, which shows that the striker is exceptional domestically and in Europe.

These statistics, and his sensational market value, show that Leeds missed out big time by not paying the £4m Molde wanted for the young striker, who could have burst onto the scene in Yorkshire instead of having to work his way to England through Salzburg and Dortmund.

Instead, they signed Grot as a young centre-forward to develop and the Dutch number nine, who now plays for Kashiwa Reysol in Japan, was a flop at Elland Road.