Summary Leeds' decision to cash in on young goalkeeper Elia Caprile may prove to be a regrettable move as he has gone on to have a successful career and his market value has soared. Caprile was signed by Leeds but never given the opportunity to play a first-team match for the club. However, his impressive performances in the lower leagues and as a backup caught the eye. The former Leeds sporting director, Victor Orta, made a mistake in selling Caprile, especially considering the underperformance of the current first-choice goalkeeper, Illan Meslier. Caprile's potential and value have surpassed expectations.

At the start of May earlier this year, Leeds United made the decision to part ways with Victor Orta and relieve him of his duties as the club's sporting director.

It came with the Whites struggling at the bottom of the Premier League table and they were eventually relegated down to the Championship, despite Sam Allardyce being appointed in a late attempt to secure survival after the Spanish director was sacked.

Orta, who has joined the Yorkshire-based side in 2017, had a mixed spell in charge of the footballing operations at Elland Road and supporters could pick out many examples of both good and bad pieces of transfer business from his tenure.

One move that the sporting director may look back on with immense regret was his decision to cash in on young goalkeeper Elia Caprile, who has gone on to forge a very promising career for himself since his exit last year.

How many appearances did Caprile make for Leeds?

The youngster was signed from Chievo's academy set-up at the start of 2020 and he was not given a single opportunity to play a first-team match for the club during his time at Elland Road.

He was 18 at the time of his move to England and put pen to paper on a three-year contract with the Whites, that would have expired at the end of last season.

Caprile had played 40 matches and kept seven clean sheets for Chievo's reserve team but had not made his senior bow for the Italian side.

The teenage titan also kept seven shutouts in 25 U17 outings for his former club and this form convinced Leeds and Orta to swoop for his services ahead of the second half of the 2019/20 campaign.

His only appearance for the Whites that term came in the EFL Trophy and the 18-year-old ace caught the eye with eight saves and a Sofascore rating of 8.2, which was boosted by a penalty shootout save.

Caprile was then promoted to the U21 team for the following season and kept five clean sheets in 18 Premier League 2 games throughout the 2020/21 term.

He was also an unused substitute in five Premier League matches for Marcelo Bielsa that season, which suggests that the talented youngster had impressed the Argentine coach enough to be trusted to be there as a back-up.

How much was Caprile worth at Leeds?

The impressive young ace left Elland Road prior to the start of the 2022/23 campaign and was valued at just €275k (£238k) by Transfermarkt at the end of his spell in England.

This valuation came after Orta and Bielsa had allowed the Italian prospect to spend the previous season on loan with Pro Patria in the third division of football in his home country.

He made 39 appearances for the club in all competitions throughout the 2021/22 term and conceded 46 goals to go along with 13 clean sheets. This included 13 shutouts in 36 Serie C games during his first consistent run of first-team matches in his career at that point.

His form attracted interest from Serie B side Bari and they swooped to sign him on a permanent basis in the summer of 2022, as Orta and then-boss Jesse Marsch seemingly decided that he did not have a long-term future at Leeds.

How did Caprile perform last season?

That decision turned out to be a blunder by the former Whites sporting director as he had a mare with the shot-stopper, who went on to enjoy a fantastic 2022/23 campaign with his new club.

Caprile played a crucial role in Bari's season with a string of outstanding performances between the sticks after his move from the English side.

The 22-year-old ace, who was described as a "superstar" by talent scout Jacek Kulig, averaged an excellent Sofascore rating of 7.08 across 37 Serie B outings as he saved 77% of the shots against his goal throughout the season.

Per the aforementioned Kulig, Caprile had prevented 2.93 more goals than the xG of the strikes against him suggested that he should have by March, which shows that the former Leeds man was an above-average performer as a shot-stopper.

How much is Caprile worth now?

At the time of writing (10/10/2023), Transfermarkt have his market value at €4m (£3.5m) and this means that his price has soared over the last 15 months.

His value has rocketed up by a staggering 1,355% from the initial €275k that Transfermarkt placed it at when Leeds opted to sell him to Bari last year.

Since then, Caprile has proved himself to be an outstanding performer in the Serie B for his new club and earned himself a big move to Serie A champions Napoli this year.

The league winners swooped to sign him on a permanent basis from Bari and immediately loaned him out to fellow top-flight side Empoli, where he has made two appearances so far.

Appearances

168

Goals conceded

212

Clean sheets

48

His fantastic development since Orta sold him in 2022 suggests that the former Leeds sporting director had a big mare, particularly when you consider that the club's current number one has underperformed in that time.

How has Illan Meslier performed for Leeds?

The French shot-stopper has had a disappointing start to the current Championship season as the 23-year-old dud has conceded 1.73 more goals than expected across the first 11 matches, as per Sofascore.

This comes after the Leeds lightweight let in a whopping 13.14 more goals than expected and had a save success rate of just 58% across 34 Premier League outings during the 2022/23 campaign.

These statistics show that Daniel Farke's current first-choice has underperformed as a shot-stopper since the start of last season, as he has allowed far too many shots that the average goalkeeper would be expected to save to go into the back of his net.

Meanwhile, Caprile has outperformed expectations in Italy and earned himself a transfer to the winner of one of Europe's five major leagues, and is only one year younger than the Frenchman.

Therefore, Orta had a howler with the sale of the Italian colossus due to the potential upgrade that he could have been for Leeds over Meslier as well as his soaring market value.