Hull City confirms Joe Gelhardt’s return on 4+1 contract worth up to £6.5M

Hull City have made one of their most important signings in years feel like a formality. Joe Gelhardt, the striker who helped drag the Tigers back to the Premier League last season, has returned to the MKM Stadium on a permanent deal from Leeds United. The contract is a four-year agreement with a club option for a fifth, keeping Gelhardt at Hull potentially through 2031. The fee starts at £4.5 million and could rise to £6.5 million with add-ons, a price that looks increasingly reasonable given what the 24-year-old accomplished on loan. A loan spell that made this inevitable Gelhardt’s time on loan at Hull during the 2025-26 season was the kind of audition that leaves no room for debate. He scored 14 goals and added 4 assists, becoming the focal point of an attack that carried Hull through the Championship play-offs and back into England’s top flight. For a player who managed just 2 Premier League goals across 47 senior appearances at Leeds, those numbers represent a genuine transformation. Born on May 4, 2002, Gelhardt arrived at Elland Road from Wigan Athletic back in 2020 as one of English football’s more exciting young prospects. A spell at Sunderland in 2023 provided some first...