‘Great player’ scores first ever goal for his country after Leeds made £25m bid to sign him on deadline day

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Daniel Farke will be relieved all of his Leeds United internationals came through the break unscathed, but there may also be a sense of what if.

Just like in September, no Championship club had more players away representing their respective countries than Leeds, which makes the scheduling of Friday night’s Yorkshire derby with Sheffield United all the more puzzling.

Tuesday was undoubtedly the busiest day of the break for Farke‘s squad as six players were due to play, though Mateo Joseph was left out of Spain U21s’ squad entirely.

Ao Tanaka, Charlie Crew, Junior Firpo and Brenden Aaronson all played 90 minutes, the latter of which did not finish until around 5.30am BST this morning.

Wilfried Gnonto was the other man to feature yesterday, providing an assist in Italy U21s draw with Ireland, which thankfully was his only match of the break.

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Leeds target Martin Baturina achieves international first

Due to the short turnaround between Aaronson’s match with USA, and Leeds’ game on Friday, Farke could be without his only number 10.

Farke was disappointed Leeds didn’t sign another during the summer but there were certainly some attempts made, none more so than Sheffield United’s Gustavo Hamer.

However, the one player Leeds reportedly went huge on was Dinamo Zagreb’s Martin Baturina, with reports of a £25 million bid being accepted.

Baturina turned down the move to Elland Road as he continues his development with Zagreb, a decision which seems to be paying off as he establishes himself on the international stage.

The 21-year-old was handed just his third start for Croatia’s senior side on Tuesday night and scored his first ever international goal in a 3-3 draw against Poland.

Real Madrid legend Luka Modric hailed Baturina as a ‘great player’ and the future of Croatia’s national team recently, and after providing an assist as well, this game could be seen as the one which sets him on the road to doing that.

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Baturina was always too ambitious for Leeds

Not only is Baturina enjoying success on the international stage, but also at club level for Dinamo Zagreb.

Baturina has two goals and seven assists in 12 appearances so far this season, with Manuel Neuer actually labelling him as Zagreb’s dangerman ahead of Bayern Munich’s Champions League clash.

Realistically, a player like Baturina at Championship level was always going to be too ambituous for Leeds, particularly with some of Europe’s biggest clubs circling.

That said, perhaps if Leeds were to get promoted this season and Baturina stayed at Zagreb beyond January, then a move could be revisited next summer.