Transcending the volley

Until Yeboah arrived, my favourite player had been Rodney ‘Goal of the Season 94’ Wallace, because he scored goals and had enough skill in his feet to make opponents look very silly. Rod Wallace was little and wily, which made me feel better about myself as a smaller than average child desperate to be good at football.

But whereas Rod Wallace was, for me, a distantly aspirational role model, Tony Yeboah changed my understanding of what was possible in football. He did things that were beyond even my most fanciful imaginings. And there was nothing about his greatest moments that I ever succeeded in emulating. And that wasn’t for want of trying — my brothers and I skying endless volleys into neighbouring gardens and piercing flyaways on cruel-fingered hawthorns, as we failed to hit volleys in off the bar.

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