Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier
Leeds United goalkeeper Illan Meslier is attracting significant interest from Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the 2023 summer transfer window.Â
That’s according to Phil Hay, Leeds correspondent for The Athletic.
The lowdown
The 22-year-old is under contract at Elland Road until June 2026, having only signed an extension at the start of last season.
Leeds made two huge sales in the summer transfer window, with Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips joining Barcelona and Manchester City respectively for a combined £100m.
Spurs may be on the lookout for a long-term successor to Meslier’s compatriot Hugo Lloris, who will turn 36 on Boxing Day.
The latest
In a piece for The Athletic, Hay reports that Leeds could receive ‘big-money bids’ for their first-choice goalkeeper in 2023, and it seems that Spurs are at the forefront of the group of suitors.
Hay wrote of the 22-year-old: “In simple terms, he is the player the club are most likely to receive big money bids for next summer, and it is no surprise that with Lloris into his mid-thirties and on course to be out of contract after the 2023-24 season, Tottenham are as interested in Meslier as anyone.”
The verdict
It’s no surprise to see Meslier being linked with a Champions League outfit like Spurs.
In Leeds’ first season back in the Premier League in 2020/21, he posted the fourth-best shot-stopping record in the division, ‘preventing’ 5.3 goals (via FBRef) as his heroics earned him the Whites’ Young Player of the Season Award.
In the 2021/22 English top flight, he was called into action more frequently than any other goalkeeper, making a whopping 139 saves.
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According to Transfermarkt, he is Leeds’ fourth most valuable asset (at £18m), behind only Brenden Aaronson, Jack Harrison and Luis Sinisterra.
Aaronson says that the goalkeeper – who has started all but three of the Whites’ 82 matches back in the top flight since 2020 – possesses ‘so much quality‘, and his calmness has seen him nicknamed the ‘Iceman‘.
Therefore, Leeds ought to expect no shortage of interest in the Frenchman; and if they are to sell him, you’d hope that they’ll at least get a handsome reimbursement like with Raphinha and Phillips.
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