Manchester City have reportedly settled terms on the sale of James Trafford, with Leeds United agreeing a package worth $53 million (\u00a340 million) plus bonuses. If completed, the transfer would make Trafford the most expensive British goalkeeper in history.<\/p>\n
David Ornstein of The Athletic reported that Leeds have reached an agreement for the England international, who is now expected to move to the Yorkshire club. Newcastle United were also in the picture and had been viewed as Trafford\u2019s preferred option, but they withdrew from the chase and left Leeds clear to move.<\/p>\n
The switch would arrive almost exactly a year after Trafford first became England\u2019s most valuable goalkeeper by surpassing Jordan Pickford\u2019s mark. It would also see him go beyond his own previous record.<\/p>\n
Trafford\u2019s City spell was shaped by the arrival of Donnarumma, who joined for a cut-price $35 million and kept the starting role. Trafford was restricted to domestic cup appearances, although he still played an important part in City\u2019s FA Cup and Carabao Cup double. His standout moment came in the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal, when he produced a remarkable triple save early on to keep the game level.<\/p>\n
With Donnarumma in place, a summer exit always looked likely for Trafford, and Leeds have now emerged as the club set to benefit. Daniel Farke\u2019s side avoided relegation last season and did so with relative comfort after moving to a back three midway through the campaign. They are now focused on consolidation, and Trafford would be a significant addition.<\/p>\n
Karl Darlow has already left this summer, while Lucas Perri remains on the depth chart. Even so, Perri was overtaken by Darlow last season and has not convinced Farke he can become Leeds\u2019 No. 1. Trafford would likely take that role immediately.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old travelled to the World Cup with the Three Lions and is widely seen as England\u2019s goalkeeper of the future. Once the deal is finalised, he will rank as the fifth most expensive goalkeeper in soccer history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leeds have agreed a $53 million deal for Trafford, a record fee for a British goalkeeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[702,1814],"tags":[1874,1875],"class_list":["post-18084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leeds-united","category-manchester-city-news","tag-england-news","tag-leeds-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}