Leeds United have confirmed the signing of promising young Portuguese defender Diogo Monteiro from Swiss outfit Servette. Monteiro becomes the Whites' fourth signing of the January transfer window following the arrival of Weston McKennie on Monday night and Leeds have tied him down on a three-and-a-half year deal.
Monteiro turned 18 last week and given his age, he will be made available to play for Michael Skubala’s Under-21s side initially as they battle at the top end of the Premier League 2 Division 2 table. However, Jesse Marsch will be keeping a keen eye on his development with the hope that he will be able to progress into the first-team in the future.
The centre-back was born in Switzerland, but he has chosen to represent Portugal at youth international level. He has made over 30 appearances for his country at various age levels and he is currently in the Under-19s set up.
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He is still relatively inexperienced when it comes to senior football, making just seven appearances for Servette after emerging through the Swiss Super League side’s youth ranks. The defender made his league debut for the club while he was still only 16 and he’ll be keen to build on that progress at Elland Road after committing his long-term future to the club.
Monteiro represents the second signing Leeds have made from Switzerland in the last few months with the defender following in Wilfried Gnonto, who made the deadline day switch in August from FC Zurich.
The Whites can be expected to be active before the window shuts at 11pm tonight, but business will be focused on outgoings with Diego Llorente set to leave and speculation surrounding the future of Jack Harrison.
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