Leeds United have officially signed Aapo Halme for an undisclosed fee on a four-year contract today from Veikkausliga side, HJK Helsinki. The Whites were interested to lure him to the Elland Road for quite some time and it is relishing seeing them starting to do the requisite amendments or additions to their arsenal early in the transfer window. It is also perceived that the Championship outfit had to beat a lot of clubs in order to sign Halme.
Halme surfaced from the youth ranks of FC Honka and was then promoted to their senior side. After that, he moved to the ranks of Klubi-04 and eventually moved to Helsinki in 2015. The 19-year-old operates as a central defender and despite his young age, he has accumulated a fair amount of experience under his belt. He made 36 appearances for the Finnish side, out of which 13 appearances in the premier division of Finnish football this season and is one of the highly rated youngsters in the game.
The Whites are certainly one of the sides which are capable enough to challenge for promotion to the Premier League this season and are currently placed at the 6th spot in the Championship table. They would certainly need reinforcements this month in order to beef up their arsenal to ensure that they refrain from being complacent. However, Halme isn’t likely to be thrown into Thomas Christiansen’s first-team setup and arguably, he needs to work his way through the youth sides of Leeds United.
Halme is a tall defender who has shown his excellent game-reading skills so far in his short career. Besides, he has been developing and is a starlet who has immense potential. What he really needs at this stroke of the hour is proper guidance to ensure that he steadily climbs the ladder. Championship offers humungous competition and the Finnish needs to acclimatize himself with the animosity and get himself familiarized to English football and how Christiansen manages him would be intriguing to watch.
Leeds United have also signed Japanese midfielder, Yosuke Ideguchi, but he will not be handed a UK work permit and is thus likely to be shipped out on loan. With Halme and Ideguchi already in their books, it goes without saying that the Peacocks are eyeing to build a strong team for the future, but at the same time, it has to be mentioned that they do need to make further additions to meet their needs for the second half of the season as well.
