Leeds United, Igor Paixão, and Getting Hurt Again

This is the third time I’ve chosen to re-write this Igor Paixão article. When I originally approached the idea back in May, it came off of the back of the news that Freiburg were interested in Willy Gnonto and that Leeds were open to a sale. 

Gnonto is an interesting case study among the fanbase. Some fans believe he shouldn’t be sold and will only improve with age and experience. Others still haven’t forgiven him for refusing to play for us after relegation.

I believe that Gnonto is failing to live up to early expectations and is now struggling to impact games when given the opportunity. At just 22 years old, and with almost 200 senior appearances for both Zürich and Leeds, Gnonto has both experience and the room needed for growth. However, it’s clear that Farke simply isn’t sold on him. Gnonto failed to get ahead of Summerville during our first Championship season, then failed to displace Solomon in the second. And last season, his minutes have become even more sparse.

For a few months now, his sale has felt inevitable. There aren’t many players in our squad that you look at and think that they can command a decent fee, and you’d be alright with them leaving. While Gnonto’s stock has undoubtedly dropped since he pushed for a move after relegation, his age and experience should still command a fee somewhere in the region of £15–20 million. Especially with the prices being thrown around by clubs this summer. Used wisely, any money could be reinvested into a player capable of raising the ceiling of the squad…and the roof off the West Stand. Though admittedly, that in itself might save the 49ers a fortune on the reconstruction of the latter.

Then there’s Noah Okafor. When he was signed last summer from AC Milan many fans were left feeling underwhelmed by his signature. Leeds fans had been teased for weeks about Feyenoord’s Brazilian winger Igor Paixão. I’m not certain any of us had heard of him in May when Solomon scored a last minute winner against Plymouth to crown us “Champions Again Ole Ole”, but by July we were frothing at the thought of Paixão on the left wing. Instead, we ended up with Okafor for around £18 million. Many fans questioned his poor record in Italy with AC Milan and Napoli, as well as his very questionable injury record. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, because writing this almost a year later, I’m not sure we stay up without him. Okafor gives us something we simply lack elsewhere: explosive pace, direct running, and the ability to actually beat a man in a one-v-one situation.

His goals towards the back end of the season — including at the Stretford End — played a huge role in dragging Leeds towards safety. However, his inability to consistently last beyond the 60-minute mark, coupled with ongoing fitness concerns, shows there’s still a need for further depth in that area.

If Gnonto does move on, strengthening the left-hand side (particularly the space operating off Dominic Calvert-Lewin) should become a priority. And if there’s one thing the failed loan signing of Facundo Buonanotte has taught us, it’s that the 49ers aren’t afraid to go after a player they had previously wanted. 

The second time I wrote this article, I managed to convince myself that Marseille were skint and Leeds were about to pull off the bargain of the summer. On 13 May, Foot Mercato journalist Santi Aouna reported that the DNCG (essentially French football’s financial watchdog) had concerns over Marseille’s finances.

Naturally, this sent me tumbling down yet another late-night football rabbit hole. And the further I went, the worse it looked. L’Équipe reported that Marseille were struggling to comply with the settlement agreement they signed with UEFA in 2022, while figures published by the DNCG showed almost €157m in net losses across three seasons. The progression is pretty grim: €12.7m in 2022/23, €39.1m the following year and then €105m in 2024/25. Aouna went further, reporting that Marseille “must absolutely sell before June 30”, with even recently signed players potentially available. One of their players who I won’t name has already departed for a large fee, but Marseille are still in need of sales. 

And that’s where my mind immediately went back to Igor Paixão. Leeds spent a large part of last summer trying to sign him. He was reportedly one of the club’s “stretch targets”, Marseille eventually won the race, and that should really have been the end of it. Except here I am. Writing about the bastard for a third time.

With Julian Brandt signing for Ajax on Friday evening, Paixão’s name was once again mentioned by Graham Smyth. And that’s when I decided that I’m ready to get hurt again. Maybe I didn’t watch all of those YouTube montages last summer for nothing. 

READY TO BE HURT AGAIN

Igor Paixão is a 26-year-old Brazilian winger who broke my heart last summer when he chose to play for Marseille over us. How did that work out for you, Igor? At just 5’6”, he’s not the prototype target that our recruitment team favoured last summer. But he does fall into the “moonshot” category that Paraag Marathe will no doubt regret coining by the end of the window. Predominantly right-footed, he does the vast majority of his best work starting from the left-hand side and cutting inside for a shot. 

Paixão’s route to European football wasn’t particularly glamorous. He came through at Coritiba in Brazil, spent time on loan with Londrina and didn’t arrive at Feyenoord until 2022, by which point he was already 22. It was here where Paixão really made his name.

Across three seasons in Rotterdam he won the Eredivisie in his first season, added the KNVB Cup the following year and then produced comfortably the best football of his career during 2024/25. 

2022/23 – Eredivisie – Feyenoord

• 7 goals (38th overall)
• 5 assists (28th overall)
• 7.01 FotMob rating (99th overall)
• 32 chances created (45th overall)
• 19 big chances created (19th overall)
• .50 goals per 90 (16th overall)
• 1.40 successful dribbles per 90 (61st overall)

2023/24 – Eredivisie – Feyenoord

• 9 goals (25th overall)
• 3 assists (62nd overall)
• 6.60 xA (14th overall)
• 7.40 FotMob rating (33rd overall)
• 58 chances created (10th overall)
• 10 big chances created (20th overall)
• .42 goal per 90 (40th overall)
• 1.30 successful dribbles per 90 (53rd overall)

2024/25 – Eredivisie – Feyenoord

• 16 goals (2nd overall)
• 10 assists (5th overall)
• 26 goals and assists (2nd overall)
• 7.74 FotMob rating (1st overall)
• 70 chances created (3rd overall)
• 12 big chances created (7th overall)
• .50 goal per 90 (22nd overall)
• 1.80 successful dribbles per 90 (23rd overall)

Which, obviously, is where Leeds entered the story. The club spent a significant chunk of last summer trying to sign him. Leeds were serious enough that Brazilian reporting described us as Marseille’s strongest competition, while L’Équipe reported that Marseille eventually agreed a deal worth around €35m including bonuses. Feyenoord received €30m guaranteed with another €5m potentially arriving through add-ons. Paixão signed a five-year contract and became the most expensive signing in Marseille’s history. Annoyingly, he apparently wanted Marseille. But the irony is, our presence almost certainly raised the price Marseille eventually had to pay Feyenoord. And that, coupled with their failure to qualify for the Champions League, certainly hasn’t helped Marseille’s finances.  

His first season in France started in pretty much the worst possible fashion. Paixão arrived injured, having suffered a muscular problem before the transfer was even completed. It kept him out for around two months and meant that Marseille’s record signing spent the opening weeks of the season watching everybody else play football. He didn’t return to full training until September. 

Once fit, however, we started to see why Marseille had been prepared to spend so much money on him. The obvious breakout performance came against Ajax in the Champions League. Paixão scored twice inside the opening 12 minutes as Marseille battered them 4-0, before adding an assist for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang later in the game. He scored again away at Sporting a few weeks later and finished the Champions League campaign with four goals and an assist from eight appearances. 

Across Ligue 1, the numbers were respectable rather than spectacular. 

2025/26 – Ligue 1 – Marseille

• 6 goals (34th overall)
• 5 assists (28th overall)
• 7.04 FotMob rating (75th overall)
• 29 chances created (56th overall)
• 5 big chances created (64th overall)
• 1.20 successful dribbles per 90 (58th overall)

Last summer, Paixão was coming off an absolutely ridiculous season in the Netherlands and there was a legitimate question over whether those numbers would survive the jump into a stronger league.

Paixão has shown that he can score and create in Ligue 1 albeit not at the same level as in the Eredivisie. That’s partly because the circumstances changed. He essentially missed the entire summer preparation through injury, joined a new league, and entered Roberto De Zerbi’s notoriously demanding system. But there were also periods where Paixão simply wasn’t particularly effective.

Early analysis in France picked up on one of the stranger contradictions in his game. Paixão looks like a winger who should be an elite one-v-one dribbler. He’s small, quick, has a low centre of gravity and constantly wants the ball in wide areas. Yet during the early months of his Marseille career his actual dribbling success was poor. Eurosport highlighted that he’d completed just seven of his first 27 attempted dribbles across all competitions. His reliance on his right foot was also identified as making him more predictable against deeper defences. 

That’s something worth remembering when the inevitable compilations start appearing again. Because Paixão is absolutely brilliant in a compilation. Give me seven minutes of Paixão cutting inside, smashing one into the top corner, dropping his shoulder past a defender and celebrating in front of 50,000 people and I’ll have the transfer fee PayPal’d to Marseille before the video finishes.

Over 90 minutes, however, he’s aggressive rather than silky. He’ll carry the ball and isn’t frightened of losing possession while attempting something difficult. He’ll shoot from distance and he’ll attack the penalty area without the ball. He’ll attempt passes that safer players probably wouldn’t bother trying. But that also means there are games where things don’t come off and he can become frustrating. I can already see Daniel Farke remonstrating on the sidelines.

The thing is, Leeds don’t need another winger who receives the ball, looks at his full-back, turns around and gives it back to the midfielder behind him. We have players capable of recycling possession. What we’re missing is someone who can actually create something out of nothing. 

What Paixão is, is a winger entering what should be the prime years of his career, with Champions League experience, title-winning experience, proven end product across two European leagues and an attacking profile Leeds currently don’t have enough of.

PHYSICAL CONTEXT

At 5’6”, there will inevitably be questions about how Paixão would cope in the Premier League. Is he capable of making the switch from Ligue 1 to the Premier League, which would be another step up in quality? The thing is, his game has never depended on strength or winning physical battles. His biggest weapon is how quickly he can turn possession into an attack.

Where his dribbling stats are poor for a player of his quality, his ball carrying stats are the polar opposite. Paixão can struggle when asked to beat a defender from a standing start, particularly when opponents show him away from his stronger right foot. Give him space to run into, however, and he becomes much more dangerous. Like many modern wingers, he wants defenders running towards their own goal rather than standing directly in front of him.

That should make him useful when Leeds win possession and have space to attack. Against deeper defences, the concerns mentioned earlier remain. His first season in France has shown both sides.

CREATIVE PROFILE

Paixão isn’t a winger whose creativity depends on crossing. Starting from the left, he naturally wants to move towards goal, either looking for a shot himself or creating something once defenders are drawn towards him. This would allow Gudmundsson to overlap on the outside creating an extra dimension to our attack.

The downside is that he doesn’t always recognise when the better option is available. There are occasions when the shot comes too early or he carries the ball for one touch too many. It’s part of the reason his best moments can sit alongside frustrating periods within the same game.

What Leeds would be buying is unpredictability. Paixão takes risks around the penalty area and has already shown across two leagues that enough of them result in goals and chances to justify the ones that don’t.

With Leeds currently lacking players capable of changing a game through an individual moment, that’s probably the most attractive part of his game.

FAN OPINION

Perhaps the most encouraging thing about Paixão’s first season in France is that Marseille supporters seem to have taken to him which wasn’t guaranteed. He arrived as the most expensive signing in the club’s history, missed the beginning of the season through injury and then returned to a side that ultimately fell short of Champions League qualification. Despite that, French reports have described him as a favourite among Marseille supporters, with his effort and willingness to keep demanding the ball particularly appreciated.

That probably tells us something about the player Leeds would be getting. RMC pundit Walid Acherchour described Paixão as one of the few Marseille players he had grown attached to during a difficult period for the club, praising how hard he worked while also acknowledging the wastefulness and questionable decisions that can make him frustrating. By the end of the season, the assessment was largely positive. Both Le Phocéen and Foot Marseille described his first year as a success, while reports that Marseille could sell him were greeted with concern among supporters.

FINANCIAL CONTEXT

This is where a potential deal becomes difficult to ignore. Marseille paid Feyenoord €30m plus another €5m in potential bonuses for Paixão last summer. Ordinarily, there would be little reason for them to consider selling their record signing twelve months later, particularly after a respectable first season.

Marseille’s finances make this anything but ordinary. UEFA confirmed in June that the club had failed to meet the final target of its existing settlement agreement and had also breached the squad-cost rule. The punishment included €10m in fines, restrictions on registering players for the Europa League and the threat of exclusion from a future European competition should Marseille fail to meet the required financial target this season. Missing out on the Champions League only makes that situation more difficult. Marseille earned more than €50m from last season’s competition, income they cannot expect to replace in the Europa League.

Paixão therefore represents something Marseille badly need: a valuable player with a market. Reports in France have already suggested that a sale could be considered, even at a loss on the €35m package agreed last summer. That doesn’t mean Marseille will simply accept whatever Leeds offer, but Leeds know the player, spent months working on the deal last summer and, according to Graham Smyth, have now included him among the attacking options being evaluated following the failure to sign Julian Brandt. The interesting number is €30m. Marseille would understandably want to recover as much of their investment as possible, but their bargaining position is considerably weaker than it was twelve months ago. If the price begins to fall below what Leeds were prepared to spend last summer, this becomes a very different conversation.

STRENGTHS

• Quick
• Direct
• Carries the ball well
• Dangerous on the counter
• Good movement off the ball
• Scores from distance
• Creates chances
• Works hard defensively
• Comfortable cutting inside
• Champions League experience

WEAKNESSES

• Small
• Poor in the air
• Very reliant on his right foot
• Can be predictable
• Inconsistent one-v-one
• Gives the ball away
• Decision making
• Less effective against deep defences

CURRENT LEVEL

Good European-level winger. Proven in France and the Champions League, but not yet a top-level player.

CEILING

Very good Premier League winger capable of regularly reaching double figures for goals and assists.

FLOOR

Inconsistent Premier League winger whose lack of size, and his predictability limit his impact.

MY VIEW

I wanted Paixão last summer and, having watched him make the step up to Ligue 1 and perform in the Champions League, I still want him now. He isn’t perfect. There are genuine questions over his size and decision-making. But Leeds need another winger who can beat a man, create something from nothing and take some of the attacking burden away from Okafor.

The €50m Marseille reportedly want is too much. And with their financial position, I don’t think they’re in a position to demand anywhere close to that figure. The €30–35m Leeds reportedly value him at feels far more reasonable. The funny thing is, we may end up paying less than we would have last summer. Genius from Underwood.

Listen, I spent far too much of last summer watching Igor Paixão compilations for this story to end with him playing one season in Marseille and disappearing from my life forever. There has to be a payoff eventually, right? So please, Leeds. Get it done because I really don’t want to write this article for a fourth time.