Deep in the bellows of Yeadon airport a TV flickered in the near distance as I waited to board a flight to Poznan. England were playing Finland in the Nations League in Helsinki but my attention had been drawn to a BBC article about the proliferation of footballers from the UK plying their trade in Finland’s top domestic league, the Veikkausliiga. I can’t say I’ve ever given the league much attention, but the article piqued my interest. Blazing a trail was Leeds native and diehard LUFC fan Ashley Coffey.

Coffey hadn’t just made his mark in Finland, where he won the equivalent of the Golden Boot, but also Sweden. Yet by the time I sat down to interview Ashley, he was speaking from Tingley, in the parish of West Ardsley. Ashley was back home in Leeds, paying his family a visit following the climax of the Veikkausliiga’s regular season and relegation round that followed, a fate his club FC Oulu had avoided. Naturally, there was only one place I could start. So, always a Leeds fan?

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