Pontus Jansson reveals offer, ‘lot of money’, ‘very close’ to exit, explains why he stayed at Leeds United

Pontus Jansson could now be a Krasnodar player had things worked out differently over the summer.

Interest from the Russian club was reported by both the Yorkshire and Swedish media during the window, and now the Leeds United player has openly spoken about the opportunity and how much it was worth to him financially.

Currently away with the Swedish national team, Jansson explained the situation to Fotbollskanalen: “It just did not feel right. I’ll be a dad in a month so I weighed it all up. Clearly there was a lot of money and I could have secured my future, but the sports team with Leeds and Bielsa weighed over it. But it was not an easy decision.”

Krasnodar had wanted to replace Andreas Granqvist with Jansson, and it seems very clear that attempts were made to persuade the player, but his decision fell in the favour of Leeds.

Jansson added: “Krasnodar wanted to replace ‘Gran’ with me. It was very close, I thought about it, but I did not feel right. I wanted to finish with Leeds. I had a heavy season with the team last year and I didn’t want to finish the love like that.”

The Leeds United defender knows his comments will get back to fans of the Championship club, but he doesn’t seem to be throwing fake declarations of love around. Jansson very much says things as he sees it, and whilst that’s got him in hot water previously, this is a good news story.