While Sport on Tuesday claimed that Leeds United had won the race to sign Ilias Akhomach from Barcelona, Mundo Deportivo try to rein things back a bit on Wednesday.
The Catalan outlet certainly don’t deny that the Elland Road side are on the right track, and do agree that the player has ‘given the OK’ to Javi Gracia and co., but ‘there is nothing closed’.
They point out that Ilias’ wish has always been to stay at Barcelona, and his intention was to ‘not go through a change of scenery’, but negotiations with Leeds are ‘well underway’.
Teams such as AC Milan and Sevilla may have also been after him, but Mundo Deportivo point out that with Javi Gracia as the manager and Victor Orta as the sports director, the Premier League side ‘would have convinced him’ to choose Elland Road rather than others as his next destination.
So, it seems that Leeds are still well on track to getting their man, but it certainly isn’t as advanced as what Sport were pushing on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old’s contract with Barcelona expires in June, meaning he is available on a free transfer, and he will leave with just three first-team appearances for the club he rejoined in 2017 after a four year stint at Gimnàstic Manresa.
