Fans of Leeds United striker Lukas Nmecha's former club RSC Anderlecht begged the striker to stay after a prolific loan spell.

Leeds' first signing of the 2025/26 summer window was announced over the weekend as Lukas Nmecha agreed to join the club on a free transfer as of next month.

The 26-year-old arrives at Elland Road following an injury-hit four-year stay with VfL Wolfsburg in the German Bundesliga and can be characterised as a low-risk addition to Daniel Farke's squad.

Nmecha has signed an initial two-year deal at Leeds with the possibility to extend, provided he is capable of proving his fitness and performing at a Premier League level.

He joins the attacking ranks at Thorp Arch currently populated by Joel Piroe, Mateo Joseph and Patrick Bamford, offering a different all-round, physical package to the strikers on the Whites' books at present.

During the final two years of his Wolfsburg contract, which expires in a fortnight, Nmecha was sidelined for an extended period due to knee and hamstring issues. Having overcome those and passed a medical, his time at Leeds can represent a fresh start for the former Etihad Stadium academy graduate. Should he rediscover the goalscoring form he demonstrated during a breakout season at Anderlecht in the Belgian Pro League, Leeds' free transfer signing could prove to be one of the bargains of the summer window.

At Lotto Park during 2020/21, the young Anderlecht loanee hit 21 goals in 41 appearances across all competitions as first choice centre-forward under head coach Vincent Kompany. While a proportion of those goals were from the penalty spot, Nmecha's all-round play was hailed by those who watched him frequently - including Anderlecht fans.

Speaking on the SCOUTED Podcast back in March 2021, Belgian football expert Ben Jackson summarised the season Nmecha was having, which ultimately preceded his move to a big-five European league that summer.

"The first game I watched him play, I think it was away at [KV] Oostende, and it was the first time we saw an Anderlecht striker make a run in behind the whole season. I was like, 'Finally, someone that's going to stretch the play a bit', and that's what he does quite a bit.

"He runs the channels really well for them. He likes to get on the ball. He likes to hold it up. He's quite good on the ball as well. And like I said, he's physical and he's got some technical ability.

"At the beginning, he was quite selfish, so he'd get it, and he'd kind of have tunnel vision, 'I'm just going to run and try and score' - that just isn't going to work, that might work at Under-21 level, but when you make that step up, it's never going to work at the pro level.

"The other week, they played Antwerp and he didn't score, but I think it was his best game, he held the ball up really well, he was really putting the defenders under a lot of pressure, running the channels, making the right passes, his decision making just looked like it's got so much better."

It is difficult to know the toll Nmecha's injuries have taken on his athleticism and ability to run the channels as Jackson describes, however, Leeds' recrutiment heads have clearly seen enough in terms of the striker's physicality with Wolfsburg to believe he is up to the test in the Premier League.

Fans’ view

Additionally, Nmecha became something of a fan favourite at Anderlecht with Jackson, host of the Belgian Football Podcast, adding: "Anderlecht fans absolutely love him at the moment. Obviously they can't be in the stadium [due to COVID], but they brought a banner out at the training ground, basically begging him to stay for another year."

Whether Nmecha still possesses the capacity to replicate a version of his Anderlecht season at Elland Road remains to be seen, but what Leeds have done at the very least is secured, relatively cheaply, an experienced, imposing forward with top-level athletic potential, even if he hasn't been able to demonstrate it the past several seasons.