Junior Firpo got Leeds United’s pre-season underway at Harrogate Town amid a glut of reports from Spain he could be leaving this summer.
Firpo was in the starting line-up for Friday’s match in North Yorkshire and opened the scoring in the first half as he steered home a cross from Mateo Joseph.
The 27-year-old was in a position that really suited him during his time on the pitch, with Daniel Farke opting to test out a new back five system, giving him the license to get forward.
Leeds‘ opening pre-season friendly came in a week in which Firpo had been heavily linked with a move to his former club Real Betis.
It was suggested Firpo is keen to make the move back to Betis this summer and an early contract termination was even one of the options under discussion.
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Leeds handed boost in chances of Firpo staying
Despite those aforementioned reports, Firpo clearly looks as though he remains a key part of Farke’s plans going forward.
He is regularly shown across Leeds’ different social platforms by the club’s media team, and is of course part of the squad which has flown out to Germany.
Nothing has developed since the end of last week regarding a move for Firpo, apart from Diego Llorente, one of two Leeds players signed by Betis this summer, stirring the pot a tad.
As such, it would appear Betis have instead switched their attention elsewhere in their search for a new left-back, with free agent Ricardo Rodriguez now on the radar.
In fact, Betis have even gone as far as making an offer to Rodriguez, as confirmed by his agent Haroon Masoodi in an interview with Inter-News.it.
“There were talks with the sporting director [Piero Ausilio] a few weeks ago. Inzaghi likes Ricardo, but we haven’t received any offers. I think the owners are looking at other profiles.
“We received offers from Dubai, specifically from Al-Ain, Real Betis and Turkish clubs. Olympiacos asked for information, but offers have not been good enough so far.”
The fact an offer has gone in for Rodriguez amid a period of quiet regarding Firpo, should hopefully mean Leeds aren’t in any danger of losing him this summer.
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Firpo hints he will be staying on Instagram
Following Leeds’ 3-0 win in Harrogate, Firpo posted a three-word message on Instagram at full-time simply stating, ‘we are back.’
However, it was his response to Joseph in the replies that could offer hope he is staying for the season ahead.
After setting him up, Joseph labelled Firpo as a ‘goal scorer’ in the comments to his post, to which Leeds’ left-back responded with, ‘next one I give it to you.’
Obviously this is only a bit of light-hearted banter with a teammate, but the fact he says there could be a next time is something that Leeds fans can hold onto.
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