Tottenham Hotspur have sprung up at inopportune moments during my life as a Leeds fan. Tony Yeboahโs last act in a Leeds shirt came at White Hart Lane and I was there, in the home end, as he was goaded into throwing his shirt at George Graham while he walked off the pitch after being substituted. He had time to weigh it up and thought that this was the only, if imperfect, denouement to his Leeds career.
Of course, Graham soon found a permanent home at White Hart Lane. Marcelo Bielsa managed his final game in charge of Leeds against Spurs and we were relegated on the final day of the 2022/23 season after losing to them, too. And, of course, who can forget the titanic transfer tussle of 1999 over Willem Korsten?
It wouldnโt happen in todayโs world of 24/7 football coverage, a signing like Yeboah being made from nowhere, a leap of faith purchased from foreign lands. Data departments and would-be football insiders would have been covering the player for months, with supporting YouTube highlight reels. You got the occasional dud, even with as lofty a reputation as Tomas Brolin arrived with, but there was a great joy in seeing an unknown arrive, hopefully about to bloom like a Yeboah or a Hasselbaink.
The ultimate currency of the playground as a kid was great goals. A striker could net one of those and have his reputation cemented in juvenile hearts for the following months.
Itโs fair to say that Leeds United werenโt a roundly popular club back in 1995. You could reasonably say the same now, to be fair. Extraordinary players and managers can push a club beyond that. Yeboah was the first to do it during my time as a supporter.
Monday 21st August 1995 was a time before mobile phones and mass internet use. We were on a family holiday in Dorset, no Sky TV or means of checking the result. A quick diversion into WHSmith the following morning for a peek at the sports headlines roundly acclaimed a goal for the ages: Leeds United 1-0 Liverpool (Yeboah 51โ). A mid-week Match of the Day was worth staying up for. It was all anyone was talking about.
Fast forward to Saturday 23rd September 1995. Grandstandโs vidiprinter ticked in with the final scores: Wimbledon 2… โbloody hell!โ exclaimed my dad… Leeds United 4. โItโs worth staying up for Match of the Day tonight!โ exclaimed the in-stadium reporter. โTony Yeboah has done it again!โ
And boy, had he done it again. It was another goal so good that it transcended the result. It transcended his own hat-trick, too. Leeds had won both games, but more importantly Yeboah had made you immensely proud to be Leeds. This wasnโt someone else scoring goals for the ages, this was a Leeds United player.
There were other goals โ Scum, Monaco โ that added depth to Yeboahโs legacy. But for the ultimate in playground pride, Doing A Yeboah was something aspired to by everyone. โฌข
(Photograph by John Giles, via Alamy)