Leeds United complete signing of Germany international Robin Koch from Freiburg

Leeds United have completed the signing of Germany international centre-back Robin Koch from SC Freiburg for a fee of £13m.

Koch has signed a four-year deal with Leeds and is expected to be the first choice partner for Liam Cooper at centre-back. However his later arrival at the club, coupled with his imminent joining up with the Germany squad for games against Spain and Switzerland, may mean he has to wait a few games before he enters Marcelo Bielsa’s starting line-up.

The 24-year-old joined Freiburg from FC Kaiserslautern for €3.5m in August 2017 and he went on to make 87 appearances, scoring six goals. He established himself as a centre-back, but he also played as both a holding midfielder and a central midfielder during his time there.

Koch tweeted his thanks to the Freiburg support ahead of the announcement and he seemed to be given the blessing of Freiburg fans on social media - which is the sign of a popular player - although they were hard to find among all the Leeds fan responses.

Koch quickly emerged as the main target for Leeds at centre-back once it became clear that a deal with Brighton and Hove Albion for former loanee Ben White would be impossible. Many Leeds fans are seeing Brighton’s stance as a blessing in disguise now, Leeds failing to get a player who has never played higher than the Championship for £25m, and instead getting a Germany international for £13m. This is not an unreasonable stance, but I stand by my previous assertion that Ben White will become an England international.

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