Lincoln seal club-record deal for Ladefoged

Mikkel Ladefoged has signed a five-year contract with Lincoln City [Chris Vaughan/Lincoln City] Lincoln City have signed striker Mikkel Ladefoged for a club record fee from Swedish side Vasteras SK. The Danish forward has agreed a five-year contract with the Championship newcomers, having scored 19 goals in 29 appearances for Vasteras. The Imps have not revealed the fee, but it is understood to beat the previous highest of around the £2.5m they paid for Romania international defender Andrei Coubis in July. "It's a dream to play in England and I feel ready to take the next step in my football career," the 23-year-old told the Lincoln City website. "There are a lot of games and it's a hard league, but I think Lincoln fits my style of play. "I know there are going to be plenty of tough games, but I'm really looking forward to playing in the Championship." Ladefoged started his career in Denmark's lower leagues with Naesby BK before joining Superliga side Sonderjyske, from where he signed for Vasteras SK in January 2025. Lincoln's sporting director Jez George said: "This is a transfer that was extremely difficult to execute in this transfer window but one that we pushed really hard to secure. "We respect that with the Swedish Allsvenskan being a summer league, we are now halfway through their season, so that creates an obvious complication to negotiate a transfer for anyone as important to a team as Mikkel was to Vasteras. "Even though the condition of the transfer was that it couldn't be completed until the end of the window, Mikkel is such a unique profile that we were willing to wait." Lincoln are next in action at home to Blackburn Rovers in the Championship on Tuesday, 1 September (19:45 BST) All the latest Lincoln City news