Leeds United reportedly looking to sign Swedish striker

The need for Leeds United to sign a new striker after the departure of Chris Wood to Burnley is not news. And the club has already signed a young prospect from the Netherlands, Jay-Roy Grot at striker, and reports out of Sweden indicate that the club is currently looking to add Malmo FF forward Pawel Cibicki.

Pawel Cibicki is a 23 year-old former U21 Sweden international, who also appeared for Poland a single time for both the U19 and U20 levels, and has scored five goals in 20 appearances this year for Malmo in the Allsvenskan.

Cibicki spent the 2016 season (the Swedish Allsvenskan doesn’t run on typical European calendar, they are a summer league for ice and snow based reasons) on loan at fellow Allsvenskan side Jönköpings Södra IF, scoring nine goals in 26 appearances, before returning to his parent club Malmo for this past season.

While it’s nice that the club is looking for additional targets that could play up front for the Whites, this shouldn’t be assumed to be a replacement for Chris Wood. The last striker for Leeds that came from the Allsvenskan, Marcus Antonsson, failed to impress and he had a much better scoring record than Cibicki. Antonsson is now on loan at Blackburn Rovers, and while Cibicki is still only 23, it would be a small miracle for the striker to suddenly be able to put up 10+ goals in the Championship.

Of course, he is coming from Malmo FF, official Swedish team of Through It All Together, Pontus Jansson’s former club, so we’re willing to give him a shot. If he does end up coming to Leeds, the club needs to dial down on the hype. Jay-Roy Grot has already been hyped up too much by the club already, and hyping up another young striker may only fan the flames even more. At best, this player looks to be insurance with summer signing Caleb Ekuban already hurt, leaving only newbie Grot and Kemar Roofe as the only strikers on the roster. A little insurance is never a bad thing.