Max Wober and Brenden Aaronson spotted as Leeds United squad head to Germany for pre-season fixtures
Leeds United have two pre-season friendlies to look forward to in Germany.
Leeds United set off to Germany earlier this weekend with pre-season preparations set to intensify - and two familiar returning faces were spotted boarding the plane. Daniel Farke has an intense training camp prepared for his squad, including two summer friendlies against local opposition.
A strong Leeds squad beat League Two Harrogate Town 3-0 on Friday, with goals from Junior Firpo, Georginio Rutter and Sam Chambers rounding off an encouraging evening in the warm July sun. One of the most notable presences was Brenden Aaronson, with the American joining his teammates at the Exercise Stadium despite not being involved as of yet.
Farke spoke glowingly of Aaronson’s decision to return from his holidays early, having made the choice earlier this summer to stay and fight for promotion. The more surprising revelation was that Max Wober intends to join him, having said goodbye to his temporary teammates at Borussia Monchengladbach.
Leeds posted a video across their social media channels on Sunday morning as Farke’s squad boarded the plane set for Germany, with both returning loanees present. It is the first time Wober has been seen in Leeds gear since leaving for Monchengladbach a year ago, with the defender hopping on to the plane while chatting with Mateo Joseph.
Aaronson was behind the pair and boarded alone, albeit the attacking midfielder was spotted in his Leeds training kit ahead of Friday’s game in Harrogate. Another notable face was that of Patrick Bamford, who is being slowly eased into training as he recovers from what Farke described as a ‘little surgery’ - there is hope he will feature in some respect while in Germany.
A number of the club’s most promising young talents were also spotted boarding the plane, including Friday’s third and final goalscorer Chambers. He was joined by Harry Christy, James Debayo, Charlie Crew, Luca Thomas and the 15-year-old Harry Gray.
There is growing optimism that Crew could enjoy a breakthrough season of his own over the next 12 months, having seen Archie Gray go from a first-team debut in August to a £40million summer exit earlier this month. Archie’s brother, Harry, has long been tipped to continue his family’s run of first-team football at Leeds and got minutes under his belt at Harrogate.
Three of this summer’s four signings were on board, with the returning Joe Rodon joined by Alex Cairns and Joe Rothwell, the latter of which enjoyed his first minutes as a Leeds player on Friday. Jayden Bogle’s £5m move from Sheffield United was only confirmed on Saturday evening and so the 23-year-old did not fly out with his new teammates, albeit the right-back is expected to follow and could make an unofficial debut.
Leeds have two fixtures against local opposition pencilled in for their trip to Germany, although fans have been urged not to travel and games will not be streamed live. The club have since confirmed that match action will be shown for free on LUTV ‘as live’ shortly after the final whistle.
Full list of Leeds players spotted boarding the plane: Illan Meslier, Karl Darlow, Alex Cairns, Harry Christy, Pascal Struijk, Sam Byram, Junior Firpo, Joe Rodon, Max Wober, James Debayo, Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rothwell, Ilia Gruev, Brenden Aaronson, Charlie Crew, Sam Chambers, Dan James, Crysencio Summerville, Wilfried Gnonto, Joe Gelhardt, Harry Gray, Luca Thomas, Patrick Bamford, Georginio Rutter, Joel Piroe, Mateo Joseph