Leeds United have announced that defender Pascal Struijk has signed a new long-term contract with the club.

The 23-year-old was due to see his previous deal expire in June 2024, but he has now put pen to paper on fresh terms, keeping him at Elland Road until the summer of 2027.

Struijk joined the Whites' academy from Dutch giants Ajax in January 2018 before making his senior debut under former boss Marcelo Bielsa midway through the club's title-winning Championship campaign in 2019-20.

The Belgium-born defender has since amassed a total of 77 first-team appearances for Leeds across all competitions, including 14 under current head coach Jesse Marsch this season.

Indeed, Struijk, who is naturally a central defender, has featured regularly at left-back so far this term while Stuart Dallas and Junior Firpo have been recovering from injury.

Stuijk remains an important member of Marsch's first-team squad and the defender has expressed his delight after committing his future to Leeds.

Speaking to the club's official website about his new contract, Struijk said: "It feels really good. I've been at the club for a while now and I'm really happy to extend my journey.

"Like in the song, there have been a lot of ups and downs, we didn't get promotion in my first year, we did in the second, we had a really good first season in the Premier League and in the second season it was tricky, but we still managed to stay in it.

"Now we are here, we want to finish the second half of the season as well as possible and then go again."

Struijk added: "I came here with one target and that was to become the best version of myself and to play in the Premier League, because it is the best league in the world.

"The journey so far for me has been really good, I think I've grown as a person and as a player. The more I can add to my package as a player, the better I can become, I want to get better every day by work hard in training and see how much I can improve.

"Day to day, this is an amazing club and the fans that come with it too are amazing as well. The whole group of players are a really good group, I come into training every day with a smile, so it was a really easy decision for me to extend my contract because I'm so happy here."

Struijk is the latest name to extend his contract at Elland Road after academy trio Joe Gelhardt, Crysencio Summerville and Sam Greenwood, who all penned fresh terms in August.

After a near six-week break for the 2022 World Cup, Leeds return to competitive action on December 28 when they welcome reigning Premier League champions Manchester City to West Yorkshire. body check tags ::