‘Tremendous’ player is now set to return to Leeds despite loan club’s bargain permanent clause.
Leeds United will be keen to offload the players that left the club on loan last summer using Victor Orta’s relegation loan clause, but Diego Llorente now looks set to return to Elland Road.
Llorente, 30, has spent the last 18 months on loan at Serie A giants Roma. The Spain international has clocked up 54 appearances for Roma, reaching the Europa League final last season with the Italian side.
Initially joining for the second half of last season, Roma renewed his stay at the Olimpico for the 2023-24 campaign. He has gone on to clock up 42 games this term, starting games after Jose Mourinho’s sacking.
He recently scored a late equaliser to draw with Fiorentina and now-Roma manager Daniele De Rossi described the centre-back as “tremendous”. Reports suggested that Roma would sign him permanently.
Indeed, it was said that Llorente had convinced Roma to buy him for £4.3m, and Leeds were confident of selling him. But now, TuttoMercatoWeb give an update and it is not good news for the Yorkshire club.
They claim that like Rasmus Kristensen, Roma will ‘probably’ not renew Llorente’s spell in Italy and he will go back to Leeds in the summer ahead of a future exit.
