ILLAN MESLIER: HOW IMPORTANT HAS HE BEEN FOR LEEDS UNITED AND HOW FAR CAN HE GO?

Featured Image Credit: The Boot Room

At just 21 years of age, Illan Meslier has proved this season he could easily become one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, and potentially the world.

It has been a fantastic debut season for the young Frenchman in England, and it seems things can only get better from here.

Racking up a total of nine clean sheets in the league and 121 saves he has been a key factor in Leeds’ success upon their return to the top.

With his incredible number of saves, he ranks second of any goalkeeper in the top flight.

He will of course be capturing the attention of many top clubs, making it interesting to see how long he will commit to staying at Leeds.

Going into this season, many felt as though Leeds were the most talented of the newly promoted group, and they have proved exactly that.

As the others have struggled towards the bottom of the table, they sit 10th, level on points with Arsenal.

It is obvious Leeds will not want to lose such an exciting prospect, so they plan to propose him a new contract to lure him into staying.

However, they will face a lot of competition, as he as certainly caught the eye of some of Europe's big dogs.

Mauricio Pochettino’s Paris Saint-Germain have shown a lot of interest in him and will consider a move for him this Summer, wanting to bring him back to his native France.

An offer of around the £26million mark is expected, and it will be a very tempting one, but it is not likely they will let him go that easily.

Marcelo Bielsa will not want him to go, he is a big part of the project he is building and it would be a massive loss as there are few goalkeepers with the level of potential he has.

Considering the success of this season so far, they will be hoping for even better next year, and losing their number one would make things difficult.

The style of football we have seen from them this year, has been very attacking, meaning they do tend to give away a lot of opportunities for the opposing team.

This makes it even more vital to have someone reliable in goal and ensure the number of goals they concede stays as low as possible.

For both Meslier and Leeds, next season is going to be a fascinating one.

The question is though, will he remain in England with them, or will he try to step up into a bigger team and potentially could play in Europe.

He clearly has the calibre to do so, and at the current time it is more a matter of when this will happen rather than if.