Leeds United have announced their fifth signing of the season, after deals for Jack Harrison, Ben White, Helder Costa and Liam McCarron.
The latest recruit is another one for the Under-23s as 20-year-old former Barcelona striker Rafa Mujica joins to hook up with Carlos Corberan.
He played 33 times for Barcelona B last season, scoring seven goals, and has signed a three-year deal with Leeds following the expiration of his deal with the Spanish giants.
The news was announced on the official Leeds Twitter page on Thursday afternoon.
?? | #LUFC can confirm the arrival of Rafa Mújica from FC Barcelona, with the forward initially linking up with Carlos Corberan's U23s side
— Leeds United (@LUFC) July 4, 2019
VERDICT
Yet another signing for Leeds and the fact that they’re getting their business done early is impressive. Mujica is one for the future but there’s an interesting snippet accompanying the announcement that hints the striker could feature for the first-team next season. The official Leeds site said he would hook up with the Under-23s initially but with a “view to training with the first team”. From what we’ve seen, Mujica can offer a multitude of threats up front and he’s a versatile attacker who’s got the pace to play across all three of the front positions. He’s good with the ball at his feet, making 2.82 dribbles per 90 mins with a 61% success rate [wyscout.com], and at 6ft1in offers an aerial threat. He’s scored 0.29 goals per 100 but has an xG of 0.35 suggesting that there’s even more to come and he works hard to track back – something Bielsa will appreciate. He’s never made a competitive senior appearance for Barcelona but he did train with the first team in the 16/17 pre-season and played alongside Messi, scoring against Leicester in a 4-2 win. The majority of his goals come from inside the box but he’s got a decent long-range strike on him and if it wasn’t for a hamstring injury at Barca he might have made more progress with the first team. It will be fascinating to see how he adapts to the Under-23s at Leeds and a fast start could see him on the Leeds bench sooner rather than later.