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To paraphrase a viral tweet, football fans can literally just sit around naming old players and have the best time. After what we’ll call a hiatus, it’s time to reboot our series of blogs in which we try our best to remember obscure former Leeds United players and have the best time while doing so.
We’ve had Amdy Faye, Caleb Ekuban and Will Buckley so far. None of those lads had the wonderkid status of Monty Gimpel, the defender of 2011 Leeds United’s bright future.
Montgomery Keno Gimpel. The young Monty came from a time when Transfermarkt was a spelling mistake to most people, but the site claims to this day that the highly-rated German defender was part of Hannover 96’s academy before joining SV Wacker Osterwald in 2009, a club that appear to be playing in a park.
Little was known about Gimpel’s life and footballing career before he joined Leeds, but I’ve some bad news for Transfermarkt’s researchers. Gimpel spent the 2010/11 season at Tooting & Mitcham, contrary to their reports, an Isthmian League Premier Division side that produced Michail Antonio and, well, Monty Gimpel.
He found himself in southern England while boarding at the prestigious — and expensive — Ardingly College. “[My schoolmates] always bring it back to the world war,” Gimpel told The Times. That doesn’t sound like public school boys, does it?!
Leeds scout and former goalkeeper Mervyn Day spotted Gimpel in late 2010 while Gimpel was at Tooting & Mitcham. He began training at Thorp Arch when not playing non-league football or studying for his A-Levels. He signed a professional contract in May 2011 along with goalkeeper Alex Cairns. Sky Sports reported that Gimpel ‘had also been tracked by the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea’ but had chosen Leeds instead. A likely story.
Internet forums lit up with speculation around this 17-year-old German defender Leeds had signed ahead of top Premier League sides. There was no ‘WELCOME TO LEEDS | MONTY GIMPEL 2011’ highlight reel to flick through on YouTube and get yourself all excited. All we had to go off was a name, some vague reports and the desperation for something good to happen to Leeds United for a change.
The club’s academy director Neil Redfearn waxed lyrical about Gimpel in summer 2011. “He just looked really at home [in the Under-18s] and didn’t look flustered, and technically, he was quite good as a centre-back,” said Redders. “He has a good physique and is going to be 6ft 1in or 6ft 2in or something. But he’s still a lot of developing to go on and is right at the beginning of his learning process.”
Gimpel spent two years at Leeds before being released at the end of his contract in May 2013.
In short, no. Unless you were at the friendly against Cork City in February 2013, or an avid follower of Leeds United U23s back at the start of the last decade, then you won’t have seen Gimpel in the flesh.
The lesser spotted Gimpel still managed to attract more ‘interest’ from Premier League clubs Arsenal and Manchester City. Monty Gimpel’s agent walked so Cody Drameh’s could run, though at least Cody had actually played for the first team a few times.
In an interview with TSB, former Leeds academy player Ashley Coffey played with Gimpel and outlined just how good the young side was that Neil Redfearn and Richard Naylor had in 2012:
“There was Lewis Cook, Kalvin Phillips, Dom Poleon, Sanchez Payne, Ross Killock, Monty Gimpel, Sam Byram, Charlie Taylor, they were all there. The best player out of all of them, by far, was Alex Mowatt. He was outrageously good.”
For one reason or another, Gimpel just didn’t make it, despite the hype around him and glowing reports from academy coaches. If only he had been first team worthy, then Massimo Cellino could have sold him for pennies along with Sam Byram et al.
For being a top notch wonderkid in Football Manager 2012. Having already questioned the work of the good folks at Transfermarkt, I’ll play it safe here and say that the Leeds United/West Yorkshire researcher for Football Manager almost certainly conducted extensive video analysis of Gimpel at Tooting, as well as his days in Hannover’s academy.
He left Leeds without ever making a first team appearance, but at least Gimpel did make life easier for a few cash strapped virtual Leeds managers when Arsenal and Man City came calling in the game, if not in real life.
Oh, and who could possibly forget the photo of him performing a flying volley in a suit and tie? Alex Mowatt never did that, did he?
Yes, but not in football. Gimpel left football to do a degree in Business and Management at King’s College, London after being released by Leeds. His LinkedIn account says he’s now working in New York as Senior Analyst – Primary Research at Norges Bank Investment Management, the firm responsible for managing the Government Pension Fund of Norway, essentially their sovereign wealth fund, which is the largest in the world.
Former Leeds United Head of Education Lucy Ward also posted a nice photo of her bumping into Monty in a Geneva hotel recently:
So if you’re one of the many Norwegian Leeds United fans, and you’ve a few quid saved or a state pension, then young Monty Gimpel, still only 32, is looking after your money for you. Not on his own, I hope. ⬢
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