£15m Leeds United transfer hope boosted amid on loan star's emerging 'fan favourite' status

Rasmus Kristensen looks to be impressing at Eintracht Frankfurt with the Leeds United loanee quickly endearing himself to supporters and his head coach.

Kristensen secured a second consecutive season away from Elland Road last month, triggering a loan clause in his contract that remained active following Leeds’ continued Championship status. The right-back struggled to make an impact at AS Roma but has seemingly enjoyed a much better start to life in Frankfurt, where he joined former Whites teammate Robin Koch.

Frankfurt are only two games into their campaign but Kristensen has played every minute so far, starting in the 4-1 DFB-Pokal win over Eintracht Braunschweig and the 2-0 Bundesliga defeat at Borussia Dortmund. And the 27-year-old looks to have made a positive early impression on head coach Dino Toppmöller.

“He has the potential to become a fan favourite,” Toppmöller told German outlet Kicker recently. “Because he has his heart in the right place, has the right attitude, the line marches up and down and has a crisp duel leadership. We are very happy with him, he is welcome to continue like this.”

Leeds might hope to see Kristensen flourish at his new club in the hope of seeing Frankfurt make his loan move permanent next summer. The deal included an option to buy which was reported to sit around £15m, which would be seen by many as an excellent deal with profit made on a rather disappointing arrival.

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Whether Frankfurt would be willing to activate that clause remains to be seen, but even if the German club are willing to negotiate, a strong campaign for Kristensen would improve Leeds’ negotiating stance. And Elland Road chiefs might be minded to cash in, given the player has shown no desire to stay and fight for promotion with his parent club.

Leeds made clear in their announcement of Kristensen's exit that the player wanted to leave, writing in their statement that the Dane ‘decided to join Eintracht Frankfurt on loan for the 2024/25 campaign’. He is one of two players believed to have had active loan clauses going into the summer, which remained as such following May’s Championship play-off final defeat to Southampton.

Jack Harrison was the other, returning to Everton after impressing head coach Sean Dyche during a tough relegation campaign. The Toffees look set for another survival scrap, having lost their opening two league games by an aggregate score of 7-0. A video emerged over the weekend of Everton players receiving abuse from supporters on their way home from Tottenham Hotspur.

Most of the other loan exits, namely Marc Roca and Diego Llorente, were sold for seven-figure fees - both to Roca’s loan home Real Betis - while Brenden Aaronson has committed to playing under Daniel Farke and has already scored twice this season. Farke insists Max Wober has also decided to stay but the Austrian is yet to speak publicly and is still of interest to Borussia Monchengladbach.