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Paweł Cibicki, who has been frozen out of the Leeds United first team since around the time that Paul Heckingbottom took over from Thomas Christiansen, was spotted at a Legia Warsaw match last night with his agent, fueling speculation that he is on the move to Poland.
Szwedzki napastnik - Paweł Cibicki z Leeds United, który wzbudza zainteresowanie Legii Warszawa, jest obecny ze swoim agentem na dzisiejszym meczu z Wisłą Płock. Jego rodzice są Polakami, zaś on sam posiada zarówno obywatelstwo szwedzkie, jak i polskie.
— Janekx89 (@janekx89) May 9, 2018
Pawel Cibicki at Legia Warsaw's game tonight. One of the players who Leeds intend to move on:https://t.co/jBHarTJF2k
— Phil Hay (@PhilHayYEP) May 9, 2018
If it’s not obvious from his name, Cibicki is of Polish descent, although he was born in Sweden and came to Leeds from Swedish club Malmö FF. He has represented Poland at the U20 levels before switching to Sweden for the U23 levels.
Tack för ett underbart samarbete Nochi, jag kommer att vara dig evigt tacksam för allt du gjort för mig och min familj, lycka till med allt i framtiden du är nr 1 i oavsett vad du än ger dig in på. Mvh Pawel Cibicki ❤ pic.twitter.com/LzWfrxDbn3
— Pawel Cibicki (@pawelcibicki) March 7, 2018
A potential move away from Leeds is not unexpected for Cibicki. He thanked his agent for coming to meet with him back in March, soon after he scored two great goals for the U23 in the Academy team’s defeat of Sheffield Wednesday.
After the visit of his agent, Cibicki made the bench twice against Bolton Wanderers and Fulham, but did not feature at all for either the first team or any of the Academy teams. While it’s not concrete proof by any means that a deal was in the works for him to leave Elland Road, the timing of the agent visit combined with the lack of appearances creates at least the impression that he is likely to move on during the upcoming transfer window.
Cibicki had a difficult time breaking into the first team at Leeds. He only made 10 appearances for Leeds this season, playing in two EFL Cup matches, the awful loss away to Newport County in the FA Cup and he made seven league appearances.
He finished with two assists while playing for Leeds, one of which came against Queens Park Rangers in December after he was brought off the bench. The other assist came in the next match against Norwich City after he got the start, but after the shambolic defeat at Newport he barely played at all, coming on for a combined 30 minutes against Ipswich Town and Hull City.
We’ll always have December to remember him by, as he looked pretty good during those matches. Let’s hope wherever he goes next it will work out better.