Yeboah on his famous screamer
Leeds 1-0 Liverpool, Premier League, 1995
It took only a few short weeks for Tony Yeboah to turn the 1995-96 campaign into a personal goal of the season competition.
The Ghanaian remains the only player in Premier League history to win the BBC Goal of the Month award in each of the first two months of a season. His September missile at Wimbledon was special, but it’s the August strike against Liverpool that he holds dearest to his heart.
The game was goalless early in the second half at Elland Road when Rod Wallace headed the ball back into Yeboah’s path, 25 yards out. The former Eintracht Frankfurt man unleashed a monstrous volley, beating David James and crashing into the net off the underside of the bar.
“How can I forget that?” smiles Yeboah, talking to FFT from his homeland. “I was a Liverpool fan. Before the game, all I had in my mind was playing against Ian Rush and John Barnes.
“I wanted to let them know that I was as good as them, so you can imagine how focused I was. I didn’t just want to score any goal – I wanted to score a really good goal.
“Once the ball came to me, I just hit it as hard as I could with all the strength I had in me. I was an old-fashioned striker – if you look through my goals, most were hit with power.
“Without doubt, that was the best goal I scored. The Wimbledon goal comes very close but we won that one 4-2. Liverpool were the team I supported growing up, and it was the only goal of the game. It meant more.”
Still a cult hero at Leeds, Yeboah has kept an eye on all the events at Elland Road. “I was there a few seasons ago and the fans are still as passionate as they were in 1995,” he says. “One threw his shirt to me, saying I could still play. That felt really special, as I sincerely don’t think I could!
“It was disappointing that they couldn’t quite go up last season, but it’s the closest they’ve been in a while and I have no doubt that if Marcelo Bielsa stays, they’ll eventually go up.
“Playing for Leeds was the best time of my life. Looking back, maybe I should have stayed there for the rest of my career.”