Leeds keeper Kiko Casilla joins Elche on season-long loan transfer ‘as he does not want to sit on the bench again’
LEEDS stopper Kiko Casillas has joined Spanish minnows Elche on a season-long loan.
The La Liga outfit will reportedly pay a chunk of his £40,000-a-week wages and have the option to make the deal permanent when the campaign ends.
The 34-year old decided to return to his homeland despite his contract ending in 2023 as he was fed up of being a bench-warmer at the Yorkshire outfit, according to the Daily Mail.
His time with The Whites has been marred with controversy since he joined them from Real Madrid in 2019.
Casilla was relegated to the bench when he was embroiled in a race storm last season.
He was given an eight-match ban and fined £60,000 for racially abusing Charlton forward Jonathan Leko – which he still denies.
Since then, Casilla has spent most his time watching from the sidelines and featured just three times for Marco Bielsa’s team in the previous term.
One of these appearances was against Hull in the Carabao Cup which Bielsa made him captain for.
But the ex-Lazio boss’ choice didn’t go down well with the club’s fans.
When challenged about his decision to make Casilla captain, Bielsa claimed the team backed it and questioned the amount of fans who were against it.
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The Leeds boss said: “His team-mates think he deserved to be the captain and we have to listen to those messages.
“The players see in their captain someone they feel can represent them.
“Surely those who judge Kiko ignore a lot of the things his team-mates see in him?
“Should I have contemplated whether to pick him as captain by taking the opinions of the fans or players?
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“The public won’t have all the information that his team-mates have.
“The opinion of the masses should always be heard but I don’t know what percentage of fans actually didn’t want Kiko as captain.
“We have to accept the decision of the authorities but we value the conduct of Kiko, which only we can judge because we are part of the group.”