Leeds join West Ham in race to sign Danish defender – report
Leeds United have joined West Ham in the race to sign Silkeborg defender Frederick Alves Ibsen, according to Danish news outlet BT.
Earlier this month, Bold reported that the Irons were close to landing the 20-year-old in a deal worth around £1.2million that would go through in the January transfer window.
However, BT now says that a deal is not so straightforward for the Hammers as Leeds, Russia’s Rostov and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb are also “very interested”, as well as clubs in Germany and Austria.
Leeds reportedly had a bid rejected by Silkeborg for Ibsen in the summer.
It would be a bit of a blow for West Ham if they fail to sign Ibsen because the Denmark Under-21 international seems like a fascinating young prospect.
Stats by WyScout suggest that Ibsen is a ball-playing centre-back as he’s completed 88.7 per cent of passes this season and averaged 58.4 per 90 minutes of league football in Denmark’s second-tier with Silkeborg. 57.4 per cent of his long-range passes are accurate while 60 per cent of his balls into the final-third have also found their target.
Ibsen has also averaged 7.15 interceptions, 12.37 recoveries and 6.32 clearances per 90 minutes in the league this season and won 57.9 per cent of his aerial duels.
For a young defender, those stats are quite impressive and West Ham can never have enough promising prospects in their Under-23s squad to add further depth to the first-team squad and also provide the side with options for the future.
We’d like to see Ibsen arrive in January but Leeds and Marcelo Bielsa’s tendency towards playing youngsters means they’re a team to look out for in the chase for the 20-year-old’s signature.
In other West Ham news, David Moyes is predicted to name an unchanged starting line-up against Manchester City.