Leeds United set for £7.7 million Premier League funding boost on top of reported Rasmus Kristensen transfer
Leeds United will make a cost-saving of an estimated £7.7 million in wages through the sale of Danish international defender Rasmus Kristensen this summer.
The 27-year-old is expected to complete a permanent switch to loan club Eintracht Frankfurt, according to reports in Germany, and will join for a fee in the region of £5 million, possibly rising to £6.6 million with future add-ons.
Kristensen signed a five-year deal at Elland Road in the summer of 2022 but spent just one season with Leeds as the club were relegated to the Championship under Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia and latterly, Sam Allardyce.
Last term, the Dane was loaned out to Italian giants AS Roma, while this season he has established himself as a regular starter for Eintracht, who currently sit third in the Bundesliga table with 10 league matches remaining.
According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, Leeds players' average weekly wage packet in 2022/23 was just shy of £74,000 before tax. The squad is understood to have had mandatory wage reduction clauses in their contracts in the event of relegation, reducing their salaries by 40-60 per cent.
Others, however, exercised loan release clauses, permitting them to play their football elsewhere, on Premier League money, whilst still being tied to Leeds, the majority of which being covered by the loan clubs. Brenden Aaronson and Max Wober were two who exercised this option, joining Union Berlin and Borussia Monchengladbach last season, but returned to Elland Road last summer, on reduced terms.
Without a transfer agreement, at the end of Kristensen's Eintracht loan, he would theoretically return to Leeds, who may well be a Premier League club once again. Given the Dane was a marquee summer signing, it is reasonable to expect during 2022/23 he was earning around, or in excess of, Leeds players' average of £74,000 per week.
While there is no suggestion Kristensen would see out his contract at Thorp Arch, which runs until 2027, there was a faint possibility if a permanent exit could not be agreed that this would be the case. Leeds' remaining outgoings, in the form of paying Kristensen's wages, would have totalled approximately £7.7 million until the expiry of his five-year deal.
That no longer appears as though it will be the case, with Kristensen set to join Eintracht permanently this summer. In addition to the £5 million fee, reportedly agreed between Leeds and Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krosche, United will make an accounting profit on the Danish international.
Common accounting practice by football clubs sees the cost of assets - in this case: player transfer fees - amortised over the duration of their contracts. For the three seasons Kristensen has been contracted at Leeds, £6.6 million of his £11 million fee will have been amortised, by the time he moves this summer.
The remaining £4.4 million is offset by the £5 million sum received from his German buyers and a £600,000 accounting profit booked.
Instead of paying out close to £8 million in wages to a player with years left on his deal, Leeds can instead put that money towards supplementing Daniel Farke's squad for the upcoming 2025/26 campaign, which barring an almighty collapse, should see the Championship leaders reinstated to the top flight.