Leeds United are no strangers to selling their best and brightest talents and had to endure losing a number of key players in the summer transfer window.
Crysencio Summerville, Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter, and Glen Kamara moved on, to West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Rennes respectively on permanent deals.
That came after the Whites failed to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, having lost 1-0 to Southampton in the play-off final.
However, even playing in the Premier League does not guarantee that the club’s best players will remain at Elland Road, as Jesse Marsch quickly found out.
In the summer of 2022, Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha both left the club to join Manchester City and Barcelona respectively and Leeds were subsequently relegated from the division in the 2022/23 campaign.
The Whites also previously had to cash in on their players whilst they struggled to get out of the Championship and one player they played a blinder with during those times was centre-forward Kemar Roofe.
How much Leeds paid for Kemar Roofe
In the summer of 2016, Leeds swooped to sign the number nine from League Two side Oxford United for a reported fee of £3m, which was a record for the third tier outfit.
The young marksman had racked up an impressive 17 goals and ten assists in 40 appearances in League Two during the 2015/16 campaign, and had produced 31 goals in 65 matches for Oxford in all competitions during his time there.
It was a significant investment from the West Yorkshire outfit on a player who had not proven himself above the fourth tier of football in England, and showed that they believed in his potential.
Their belief may have been tested in his first season at Elland Road. Roofe got off to a slow start, with four goals in 42 Championship appearances, but he was still adapting to a higher level and patience was needed.
The £3m marksman upped his output in front of goal in his second term with the club. He produced 11 goals and three assists in 36 league outings, along with three goals and two assists in three League Cup games.
Marcelo Bielsa then arrived in the summer of 2018 and the Argentine head coach helped the striker to enjoy his best season in a Leeds shirt, as the Whites made the play-offs.
Appearances
32
Starts
27
Goals
14
Big chances missed
16
Assists
2
As you can see in the table above, Roofe plundered 14 goals in 27 league starts for the club and could have scored more, had he not been as wasteful with 16 ‘big chances’ missed.
That form attracted interest from elsewhere and Belgian giants Anderlecht eventually secured his services for a fee of up to £7m in the summer of 2019.
Leeds played a blinder with that particular sale for multiple reasons, the first being that his exit opened the door for Patrick Bamford to take on a greater role.
Patrick Bamford thrived after Kemar Roofe's exit
The English forward, who had been signed from Middlesbrough in the summer of 2018, was a bit-part player for the Whites in Bielsa’s first season at the club.
He only made 22 appearances in the division, scoring nine goals, before Roofe’s move to Anderlecht the following summer allowed Bamford to become the main centre-forward option.
The ex-Chelsea prospect then helped to fire the Whites to the Championship title under Bielsa in the 2019/20 campaign, with 16 goals in 45 matches.
Appearances
22
45
Starts
15
43
Goals
9
16
Big chances missed
15
33
Assists
2
2
As you can see in the table above, Bamford played far more matches and produced more in the final third after Roofe completed his £7m move to Anderlecht.
This suggests that the Whites selling the Jamaica international was a shrewd decision, financially and from a footballing perspective, as it allowed a player they already had to step out of the shadows to become a star.
That sale has also proven to be a masterstroke from Leeds because the centre-forward’s value has plummeted over the years since his exit from West Yorkshire.
Kemar Roofe's current market value
At the time of writing (26/09/2024), Transfermarkt has his current market value at €1m (£800k) and that is a staggering drop from the £7m Leeds raked in for him just over five years ago.
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He is currently a free agent, having left Rangers at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, and it remains to be seen where, if anywhere, the 31-year-old will go next.
Roofe ended up at Ibrox after just one season with Anderlecht in Belgium. The English-born striker scored seven goals in 16 appearances for the Pro League outfit and missed 22 matches in all competitions through injury that term.
Rangers then swooped in to sign the attacker for a reported fee of £4.5m in the summer of 2020, which meant that Anderlecht made a loss of £2.5m after just one year.
This immediately suggested that Leeds played a blinder by cashing in on him for £7m, as his value plummeted within a year of his departure from the club.
Roofe’s injury problems persisted throughout his time in Glasgow. He missed a staggering 96 games through injury across his four seasons in Scotland combined.
The centre-forward did enjoy a decent record when fit and available, with a return of 38 goals in 102 appearances in all competitions, but he almost missed as many matches as he played.
His injury woes meant that the number nine was an unreliable option for Rangers, as they could not bank on him to be available for the majority of a season, and they eventually opted to release him on a free transfer earlier this year.
Overall, Leeds struck gold when Victor Orta and Bielsa opted to cash in on the striker, due to Bamford’s subsequent form and Roofe’s plummeting value over the years since.
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