Preston North End faithful will be shocked if Leeds United free agent swoop pays off in a big way | OneFootball

Newly promoted Leeds United have made their first summer signing, and it's a name that will set off lightbulbs in Preston North End fans' heads

Following a successful Championship campaign in 2024/25, where they managed 100 points but still only won the league title on goal difference, Leeds United have made early moves in the summer transfer window.

Ahead of their return to the Premier League, Daniel Farke’s side have recruited striker Lukas Nmecha on a free from VFL Wolfsburg in Germany. The 26-year-old is a Manchester City youth academy graduate, a full Germany international, and an often forgotten former Preston North End player.

"Lukas has great prospects, he's hungry, he takes in everything you tell him," said City boss Pep Guardiola, who handed Nmecha his senior debut in December 2017, as reported by the Bundesliga website. A full season for the then-teenager at Deepdale was one of three underwhelming loan deals that he embarked upon as he tried to live up to his former manager’s expectations.

Despite not setting the world on fire at PNE, nor subsequently at Middlesbrough, his form abroad – first for Anderlecht in Belgium, then for Wolfsburg – has impressed the powers-that-be at Elland Road enough to bring him in for a bit of a risk given his injury record, but potentially plenty of reward.

Nmecha arrived at Deepdale with promise, but never truly established himself

The forward’s arrival at Preston was one of two loan imports made from Manchester City by then-manager Alex Neil. Nmecha and Brandon Barker both signed on for the season with PNE hoping for a breakout year.

Preston’s front line at the time was in need of some stability. Callum Robinson to one side, the club were struggling for consistent out-and-out strikers. Both Louis Moult and Sean Maguire were great on their day, but very injury-prone, which meant young Nmecha was almost guaranteed playing time.

How true that was. Following his arrival after the first match of the campaign, the German only failed to feature in four Championship matches – all of which Preston failed to win. In the 41 games he did play, he managed three goals and five assists.

His goal contributions also always seemed to come in knife-edge matches – he assisted one in a 4-3 win over Brentford, did the same in a 1-0 win against Nottingham Forest and again in a 3-2 defeat of Millwall.

Perhaps most importantly to PNE fans, he repeated this trick one more time at Ewood Park, helping his side to a 1-0 win over local rivals Blackburn Rovers. He then bagged two goals for himself in a late-season 4-0 drubbing of Ipswich Town.

Following the Ipswich performance, Neil said to LancsLive of Nmecha: "It has been an excellent year for him. He is Man City's player, but there is no doubt in my mind that he will go on and become a really good player. I felt that early in the season he was a little bit naive, so we had put him wide right just to give him game time to get experience at this level. But he will become a number nine."

Despite that clairvoyance from the gaffer, his PNE loan is not one that is very well remembered by the fans - certainly not when compared to recent Premier League strikers’ loans like those of Cameron Archer and Tom Cannon.

Given that the 2018/19 campaign was Robinson’s last in a Preston shirt before a club-record move to promoted side Sheffield United, he was the club’s main man up top over Nmecha.

That, and the fact that the City loanee only played the full 90 minutes in 12 games from 44 in all competitions, may contribute to the fact that his temporary stay at Deepdale is not one that fans often view with nostalgia.

Nmecha had to go abroad for success after similarly unmemorable Middlesbrough loan

After departing PNE, Nmecha was again allowed to leave City on a temporary basis, this time for his homeland of Germany. An inconsistent and injury-hit six months at Wolfsburg would see the forward make just 12 appearances, none of which spanned 90 minutes, and fail to score or assist.

He would spend the rest of the 2019/20 season at Middlesbrough, who were falling way below expectations in that season’s Championship. Nmecha made 13 total appearances for the club but would again fail to register a single goal contribution.

Worse still, he never featured in any matches that the Teessiders won during his stint. There was a moment in a 1-0 defeat to QPR where the forward missed a sitter. As was reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post, he was subsequently given a word of advice by soon-to-be Boro boss Neil Warnock: "The chance Lukas had, he (will have) put every one of them away in training this week. But he just flashed at it, and I think it just comes down to confidence. Football is cruel, and you get kicked in the teeth now and again, but you have to keep fighting."

He did keep fighting, and he finally started to come good when he again left England for one final loan spell away from the Etihad. In 2020/21, the then-21-year-old finally found his scoring boots, both at domestic and international level.

For Belgian side Anderlecht, Nmecha managed 14 goals and three assists in the regular league season, and a further four goals from six games in the Champions’ play-offs as his team finished fourth and entered qualification for the newly created Europa Conference League. With this, he earned a starting spot for Germany in that summer’s U21 European Championship.

He was vital to an ultimately victorious German side, bagging four goals from seven games in the tournament, including the only strike in the final against Portugal. This impact on an international stage is what would ultimately entice Wolfsburg to give the young man another go.

It could be third time lucky for Nmecha in England after Germany impact

Ahead of the 2021/22 season, the Green-and-White had Nmecha put pen to paper with them on a permanent basis from City for a fee of £11m. In a statement released on the official Wolfsburg website, sporting director Marcel Shafer reiterated that the club were “always convinced of Lukas’ qualities”.

His first season was his best at the Volkswagen Arena, as he took on the club’s number 10 shirt and bagged 10 goal contributions in 25 Bundesliga matches. However, a pattern would emerge during that campaign that would continue across his four-year stint at the club.

He missed eight league games with an ankle injury, and then missed another 15 in 2022/23 due to knee and tendon issues. His knee problems persisted into the next campaign, in which he managed just four competitive games for the club.

Despite seeming to make the most of his minutes, Nmecha's injury troubles saw him fall behind the likes of Mohamed Amoura and Jonas Wind in the pecking order for his team. Perhaps that is part of the reason Wolfsburg were willing to let his contract expire.

As reported by LeedsLive, Wolfsburg chief Sebastian Schindzielorz had nothing but good things to say about his now former player when his departure was announced: "Lukas has always behaved highly professionally at VfL Wolfsburg – even during difficult times for him. Despite some setbacks, he never lost focus and always put himself at the service of the team. We wish him all the best for his future, both professionally and personally."

Nmecha will officially join Leeds on July 1st, and for any Preston fans who don’t already know this transfer is happening, they may be surprised to see him feature in the Premier League in 2025/26.

Despite his injury record and his less-than-fruitful endeavors in England up to now, he will be given a chance to impress at Leeds in a side likely to be battling relegation – a kind of setback that he will need to maintain focus throughout and give his services to the team for.

He wouldn’t be the first failed one-time PNE loanee to cement himself in a team with Premier League ambitions. Just last season, both Liam Delap and Stephy Mavididi were fan favorites for newly promoted and subsequently relegated sides Ipswich Town and Leicester City in England’s top flight.

Provided he can stay fit, Nmecha could be a true asset to Leeds’ bid to become the first team in three years to avoid an immediate return to the Championship. If so, he would leave many of the North End faithful surprised at his abilities, given how few headlines he made whilst wearing their colours.