Tony Yeboah
Tony Yeboah's reputation at Leeds rests on two goals scored 33 days apart in the autumn of 1995, and probably even more on the fact that nobody at Elland Road had seen the ball struck like that before or since.
- Clubs
- Eintracht Frankfurt (1990 to 1995), Leeds United (1995 to 1997), Hamburg (1997 to 2001)
- Premier League
- 47 appearances, 24 goals
- Honours
- Bundesliga joint top scorer 1993 and 1994, BBC Goal of the Season 1995/96, Leeds player of the year 1996
- International
- Ghana, 59 caps
- Fantasy price
- £7.0m in 1995/96
Why we won't forget
Two volleys, both in off the underside of the bar, five weeks apart. The first beat Liverpool on its own. The second, at Wimbledon, was voted the best goal of the whole 1995/96 season. Thirty years on, when people argue about the greatest Premier League goals, both are still in the conversation.
How he arrived
He arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt in January 1995, first on loan and then for a reported £3.4 million. He had scored 68 Bundesliga goals for Frankfurt and had twice finished as the Bundesliga's joint top scorer.
In the second half of 1994/95 he scored twelve league goals in 18 games for Leeds, including a hat-trick against Ipswich on 5 April 1995, and the club qualified for the UEFA Cup.
The moment: Liverpool, 21 August 1995
The first of the two goals came against Liverpool at Elland Road. A headed pass dropped to him at the edge of the area and he volleyed it in off the underside of the crossbar past David James. It was the only goal of the game.
The moment: Wimbledon, 23 September 1995
The second came at Selhurst Park against Wimbledon. He controlled a poor defensive header on his chest and thigh, with defenders around him, and shot from outside the area, again in off the bar. It was his second of three that afternoon in a 4-2 win.
Between the two, on 12 September, he had scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 UEFA Cup win at Monaco.
The Wimbledon goal was voted BBC Goal of the Season for 1995/96. He won Goal of the Month for both September and October 1995, and no player won the award in consecutive months again until Gareth Bale in 2013.
Why he left Leeds
He finished 1995/96 with 19 goals in all competitions and was voted Leeds' player of the year, the first winner from outside Britain. Leeds reached the League Cup final that March and lost 3-0 to Aston Villa. A knee injury ended his season early and he had surgery in August 1996.
George Graham replaced Howard Wilkinson in September 1996, judged Yeboah unfit, and rarely picked him. He played seven league games in 1996/97 without scoring.
Substituted in a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham in March 1997, he threw his shirt in the direction of the bench. He did not report for pre-season training that summer and was sold to Hamburg in September 1997 for about £1 million.
Why the streets won't forget
He played only 47 Premier League games, and scored 24 times in them. Most strikers with a career that short in England are forgotten within a decade. Yeboah is remembered because the two goals were not flukes: they were the same technique, struck the same way, by a player who did it twice in five weeks and once more at Monaco in between. Leeds fans of a certain age still measure every volley against them.
Where is he now
He played four seasons for Hamburg, finished his career in Qatar with Al-Ittihad, and retired in 2003. He then went home to Ghana, where he runs a hotel business in Kumasi.
He has since said that he and Graham had, in his words, a misunderstanding, and that he still feels sad about the turn of events.
Want him in your retro fantasy football team for 1995/96? He'll cost you £7.0m.
Draft a squad from 1995/96