On Thursday night, Preston secured their first signing of the ‘summer’ window as striker Emil Riis arrived from Randers.
The move somewhat came out of nowhere, with North End paying around £1.2million to lure the Dane to Deepdale, finally adding to Alex Neil’s striking options.
Riis looks to be an exciting addition to the Preston side; he’s a Danish Under-21 international, he scored 11 times in all competitions last season, and fits the bill for Neil in terms of being a physical presence at 6ft 3in tall whilst also having decent movement.
Lancs Live reported on Friday that Preston had beaten two German clubs to the signing of Riis, with Paderborn named as one of the clubs who fell short with an offer.
We’ve hunted around and found a report from Ekstrabladet in Denmark earlier this week, which states that Darmstadt were keen to sign the Dane amid interest from Paderborn.
It seems that Darmstadt were the other German club Preston pipped to the signing of Riis. They finished fifth in the 2. Bundesliga last season and have aspirations of going back to the Bundesliga.
This again sums up the coup that North End have pulled off by landing Riis, and the fee paid ended up being double what Paderborn offered for the striker according to that report.
Let’s hope that proves to be money well spent by North End, as Riis becomes Preston’s most expensive striker since David Healy way back in 2001.