Cast your minds back to the summer of 1995. Take That were top of the charts, Kevin Costner’s Waterworld was being shown at your local cinema, and O.J. Simpson was sitting in front of a jury of his peers.
In the Premier League, exotic names were appearing on teamsheets across the land. Ruud Gullit at Chelsea. Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal. Georgi Kinkladze at Maine Road. But in the early weeks of 1995-96, only one man was stealing the headlines: Anthony Yeboah.
Leeds United’s resident Ghanaian embarked on a run of goalscoring form that made him a Premier League cult hero and the undisputed King of the Thunderbastards. As @Sid_Lambert remembers.
West Ham, August 19, 1995
After arriving from Eintracht Frankfurt in January, Yeboah had taken little time in acclimatising to his new surroundings, and a springtime hat-trick against Ipswich showed that he was starting to simmer nicely.
By the time the new season started, Yeboah was hotter than Satan’s arsehole after an uncooperative Chicken Madras.
He scored twice a 2-1 win at Upton Park on the opening day. His first was an impressive header, his second a moment of quite exquisite savagery.
It started with that most traditional of Howard Wilkinson tactics: the hoof forward. Followed by the equally characteristic West Ham defensive cock-up, as Marc Rieper and Steve Potts suffered a collective brainfart to leave the Leeds striker space to shoot.
Still, even they couldn’t have expected what happened next. Yeboah’s left peg unleashed the most unprovoked act of violence in the East End since Ronnie and Reggie decided Jack McVitie was getting on their nerves.
The ball sizzled past Ludek Miklosko and back out again before the giant Czech could even react. This was the same Ludek Miklosko who just months earlier had performed miracles to keep out Manchester United, thereby gifting Blackburn the title. Even he was powerless. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do.
FORGOTTEN GOAL: Tony Yeboah at Upton Park from this weekend in 1995.
What a shitpinger that is. Right off the laces. pic.twitter.com/jjqjSDx4xr
— A Funny Old Game (@sid_lambert) August 18, 2019
Liverpool, August 21, 1995
There are some goals that seem destined to remain part of any self-respecting Premier League montage: David Beckham spotting Wimbledon’s Neil Sullivan off his line, Dennis Bergkamp sending Nikos Dabizas out for a paper, and Tony Yeboah nearly splitting the crossbar at Elland Road.
It came in the 51st minute of a closely…
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