£12m Leeds United title-winner 'always open' to one transfer move as honest future admission made

Leeds United promotion hero Joel Piroe admits he will ‘always be open’ to re-joining boyhood club PSV Eindhoven at some point in the future, having left for English football four years ago.

Piroe and his Leeds teammates earned legend status around West Yorkshire after winning promotion to the Premier League and racking up 100 points on their way to the Championship title. The Dutch striker bagged an impressive 19 goals in 46 games, enough to land him the second-tier’s Golden Boot award, thanks in part to a four-goal spree in last month’s 6-0 thumping of Stoke City.

The 25-year-old has now scored at least 14 league goals in all of his four campaigns away from the Netherlands, having left PSV for Swansea City in the summer of 2021, and will be rewarded for his efforts with Premier League football next season. But there is also a feeling of unfinished business back home and while a return to PSV any time soon is unlikely, a future homecoming has not been ruled out.

“That club is the most ingrained in me,” Piroe told Voetbal International of former club PSV, having been deemed currently ‘unaffordable’ by the Dutch outlet. “And my time there did not end as I had hoped. So I will always be open to a return. It is not realistic now. But who knows, later.”

Joel Piroe’s Netherlands hope as Leeds United promotion brings Premier League exposure

Piroe still has two years left on his Elland Road contract and is almost guaranteed to remain at Leeds for next season, having achieved the goal of winning promotion at the second time of asking. The former Swansea man might not be nailed on as Daniel Farke’s first-choice No.9 if reports of interest in a top-level striker are to be believed, but his clinical finishing will likely produce some massive goals over the next 12 months.

The exposure of top-flight football will do no harm to Piroe’s chances of a first ever international call-up too, with the striker recently admitting he decided to turn down approaches from Suriname in a bid to stay focused on Leeds’ promotion push. And he’s hoping Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman will stand up and take notice if the goals keep flowing at Premier League level.

“I think I'm good enough for it,” the Leeds striker said of an international call-up. “It's still a bit of a shame how the Eredivisie and the Championship are weighed against each other. The pace and intensity are so much higher here than in the Netherlands. Next year I hope to be able to show myself at the highest level, then I'll really knock on the door.”

Leeds will look to bring in a top-level striker boasting top-flight experience, with reports of interest in Everton’s Beto a reflection of the profile Farke wants. Currently, only Patrick Bamford has Premier League minutes under his belt, with neither Piroe nor 21-year-old Mateo Joseph tried at that level.

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