Leeds United goalkeeper targets revealed following Kiko Casilla departure

Leeds United have identified three goalkeeper targets to replace the outgoing Kiko Casilla who has now arrived at Elche on loan.

Graham Smyth at the YEP has revealed the three potential replacements to provide Illan Meslier with competition next season. The targets are Dani Cárdenas (Levante), Kristoffer Klaesson (Vålerenga) and Freddie Woodman (Newcastle United), all young keepers with senior experience.

Cárdenas is 24-years-old and has made a total of 13 senior appearances for Levante in La Liga and the Copa del Rey, conceding 16 goals and keeping two clean sheets as Levante finished 14th last season.

Kristoffer Klaesson has already made 55 senior appearances at Norweigan side Vålerenga over the last three years, a strong amount of experience for a 20-year-old. He has kept 13 clean sheets and conceded 73 goals so far in his early career.

Leeds have had a long-standing interest in Klaesson as the Vålerenga Director of Football revealed last summer:

“Leeds made a specific inquiry about what our plans were with Kristoffer,” he said.

“The first conversations with them were in autumn last year. We said what you see now, that this is a player we didn’t want to sell. We had faith that he could become the first [choice] keeper at Vålerenga fairly quickly, and he is at the moment. They had a sense of understanding. The talks with them were very good.”

Last but not least, Freddie Woodman has the most experience out of the three players, playing the last two seasons as Swansea City’s number one. In that time he made 95 appearances, conceding 97 goals and keeping 34 clean sheets as Swansea reached the Championship Playoff final last season.

The report also reveals that Leeds are looking to get a deal done before the team’s opening pre-season fixture on July 27th against Guiseley, but it is not too urgent as youngsters Elia Caprile and Dani Van den Heuvel remain with the squad.