As one prolific striker waved goodbye to Leeds United, another sat in the stands just wanting to say hello again.
While Chris Wood felt the ire of Leeds fans as he neared the completion of his £15million transfer to Burnley, Luciano Becchio travelled to Sunderland to support the team he’d last appeared for over four years prior.
Becchio only scored four more Championship goals for Leeds than the Kiwi, but in terms of how fondly the two players will be remembered at Elland Road, the Argentine will always be a cherished son, whereas Wood will be a cousin you begrudgingly make conversation with every Christmas – he’s still family, but you’ve not really got anything in common.
It often gets forgotten, but supporting a football club is less about results, league positions or financial accounts and more about moments.
It’s why Manchester City don’t print ‘Premier league champions 2011-12′ on their tickets and instead print ’93:20’, the exact time Sergio Aguero crashed home that seismic goal against QPR.
Since their relegation from the Premier League, Leeds haven’t had too many moments – certainly not for the non-masochistic fans, anyway – but the ones they have had tended to involve Becchio.
Two moments in particular sum up the irrevocable, gut-wrenching grip of supporting Leeds United and loving Luciano Becchio over the last decade.
Despite scoring 84 goals for the Whites and playing his part in the giant-killing of Manchester United at Old Trafford and the promotion-clinching victory over Bristol Rovers, two of his most fondly-remembered efforts came in defeats.
When Millwall visited West Yorkshire in the play-off semi-finals of 2009, Leeds had the task of overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg in order to reach Wembley for the second consecutive season.
Jermaine Beckford missed the chance to draw things level when his penalty was saved by David Forde, but the moment for Leeds, and Becchio, came in the second half, as Ben Parker went on a lung-bursting run down the left flank and centred the ball to the six-yard box.
“Becchio well placed.”
The commentators don’t actually speak for another six seconds. There’s no goal music either. There’s just a visceral roar from all four sides of Elland Road, an explosion of emotion from a group of supporters who had suffered enough bruises to know when to prepare themselves for another body blow.
To this day, nobody talks about the fact Millwall went on to equalise 20 minutes…
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