Leo Fuhr Hjelde left Leeds United for Sunderland this past January, likely searching for first-team minutes and a more prominent role. However, that switch hasn’t gone as planned for the 21-year-old.
Hjelde made the move from Leeds to Sunderland for a fee of around £2 million after finding himself out of favor with Daniel Farke. The move proved promising to start, as the youngster appeared in 11 of his first 12 matches with Sunderland.
However, that fruitful start to his tenure at Stadium of Light quickly went away as the young defender didn’t feature in the final five matches of the 2023-24 season.
Leo Fuhr Hjelde has a challenging life after Leeds
The standout had a promising pre-season under his new manager, sparking some optimism, but despite being fully fit now, Hjelde has yet to see any league action with the Black Cats.
Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris is confident that Hjelde will be given opportunities, even though he hasn’t been getting regular playing time.
“He’s very close to the team and he will have opportunities for sure,” Le Bris said (h/t The Northern Echo). “He’s a good player, he has a good mentality, he is still very connected with the team. We need this kind of player. They are not really involved at the minute but they are very close to the team and I’m sure he will have an opportunity to play.
“It’s still important to talk and take care of every player. The core, who are very involved, it’s easy for them because we have a lot of feedback and meetings, so it’s very easy to connect with them.
“With the others, as a coach and as technical staff we need to take care of them, because we don’t have this information about the game but we can still speak with them about their improvement, the project and so on.”
It will be interesting to see whether Hjelde gets a start against his former club, which would allow him to jumpstart his tenure with Sunderland. However, there’s a chance that he will remain on the bench, and the lack of minutes in the league will continue.
