Victor Orta’s time at Leeds United may not be remembered too fondly but one thing that cannot be denied is his eye for young talent.
Orta was responsible for bringing the likes of Crysencio Summerville, Willy Gnonto, Georginio Rutter and Pascal Struijk to Elland Road, all of whom are currently thriving at the club.
Ultimately, however, Orta spent too much time chasing players who were never going to make the move to Leeds and his recruitment of more senior first team players left a lot to be desired.
Over Leeds‘ time in the Premier League, there are so many players Orta tried and failed to sign, with the likes of Cody Gakpo and Rodrigo de Paul among the biggest names.
Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity, though, is young Croatian defender Josko Gvardiol, who made the move to Manchester City from Red Bull Leipzig in the summer for £77.6 million.
Former Leeds target Gvardiol 25th in Ballon d’Or
Back in 2020, Leeds were actually battling it out with Leipzig to sign Gvardiol from Dinamo Zagreb, and as per Fabrizio Romano, even agreed a fee with the Croatian side.
However, Gvardiol did not want to make the move to West Yorkshire and instead ended up signing for Leipzig, a club renowned for developing young talent and then selling them on for huge profit.
Gvardiol could not be a better example of that, making a profit of almost £60 million, and helping him to finish 25th in the race for the Ballon d’Or, after a top season for club and country.
The 21-year-old was also the second highest defender on the list, with Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-Jae the only player ahead of him in the entire list.
Watching players who almost signed for Leeds go on to enjoy so much success is obviously frustrating, but looking back, it cannot be denied that Leipzig was, at the time, the best choice for his career.
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