Tony Yeboah

Tony Yeboah the Ghanian powerhouse. What does everyone think of when you mention Tony Yeboah to them? Is it the goal against Wimbledon? Or the goal against Liverpool? Either one will be stuck in your memory somewhere. Fantastic strikes which made up just a couple of the wonderful goals scored by Yeboah during his three years with Leeds United.

As I said Tony was only playing in the Premier League for a few years but he made a huge impact. 24 goals in 47 league games is no mean feat. His first season was particularly impressive with 12 goals from 18 league games during a loan spell from Eintracht Frankfurt which persuaded Leeds to splash out 3.4 million pounds for the Ghanaian.

Now let’s get to those goals! The first one came up against Liverpool. The ball was knocked down to Yeboah outside the box a bit to the right and he smashed it first time on the volley. The ball flew straight at the top corner, hit the underside of the bar, bounced down off the line and up again into the net. I don’t think any keeper could have saved that no matter how good they are or were! About a month later Yeboah scored a hat-trick against Wimbledon and one of those goals was truly brilliant. After a bit of head tennis which I suppose you are bound to have during a game with Wimbledon the ball comes down to Tony, he takes it past one player and launches an unstoppable shot. Guess where the ball goes? He directed this missile in exactly the same place as before! Does his right foot have a homing device in it? He knows just where to hit the ball! 

I remember it well as I scored a goal very similar not long after during a game at school. Obviously my shot was not supposed to be directed towards the top corner though! It was a miracle if I ever got a shot on target at all!

Sadly in Tony’s third season he only contested seven league games with no goals to his name. Injuries were beginning to curtail his season and George Graham decided Yeboah wasn’t to his liking. Yeboah was sent off back to Germany to Hamburger SV. A bit of a cult here now though, Yeboah is still loved by Leeds fans and rightly so!

picture from http://www.sabotagetimes.com/wp-content/uploads/yeboahgq2.png