Tony Yeboah

Anthony Yeboah (born 6 June 1966) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a striker from 1981 to 2002.

Tony Yeboah
Personal information
Full name Anthony Yeboah[1]
Date of birth (1966-06-06) 6 June 1966[1]
Place of birth Kumasi, Ghana
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1983 Asante Kotoko
1983–1985 Cornerstones Kumasi
1986–1987 Okwawu United 35 (35)
1988–1990 1. FC Saarbrücken 65 (26)
1990–1995 Eintracht Frankfurt 123 (68)
1995–1997 Leeds United 47 (24)
1997–2001 Hamburger SV 100 (28)
2001–2002 Al-Ittihad 22 (5)
Total 411 (194)
National team
1985–1997 Ghana 59 (29)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

He is considered one of the most prominent and prolific goal scorers in Ghanaian and African football history and gained a reputation for scoring spectacular goals which often featured in Goal of the Month or Goal of the Season competitions, often celebrated by wagging his index finger towards the crowd.

Yeboah is most noted for his time at European clubs 1. FC Saarbrücken, Eintracht Frankfurt, Leeds United and Hamburger SV during the 1990s. He also played for Asante Kotoko, Cornerstones Kumasi, Okwawu United and Al-Ittihad Doha. He was capped 59 times by Ghana, scoring 29 goals. He now runs an international sports agency and a chain of hotels in Ghana. He won the Bundesliga golden boot on two occasions in 1992–93, 1993–94 playing for Eintracht Frankfurt.[2]

Club career

Yeboah was born in Kumasi, Ghana.[1] After spending his youth in Kumasi, Yeboah joined German club 1. FC Saarbrücken in 1988. This move was of some historical significance, because Yeboah became one of the first black players to appear in the Bundesliga. Yeboah had a slow first year, but then scored 17 league goals in his second Saarbrücken year.[3]

Eintracht Frankfurt

He was transferred to Eintracht Frankfurt in 1990, where he was at first booed by a section of fans and—being the first black player the team had ever signed—subjected to monkey-noises and other racist insults.[4] In the Hesse metropolis, Yeboah quickly established himself as a deadly striker, silencing all critics, and became the first African Bundesliga club captain.[5] He was the top Bundesliga scorer twice with Eintracht, in 1993 and 1994.[6]

Leeds United

Yeboah joined English club Leeds United from Eintracht Frankfurt for £3.4 million in January 1995. In his second season at Elland Road he was voted Player of the Year.[7] Yeboah scored a total of 32 goals for Leeds United in 66 appearances, and is still revered as a cult hero for the Yorkshire club due to a series of memorable goals he scored. His volley against Liverpool and his strike versus Wimbledon in the 1995–96 season were among his most notable goals, and he was a regular feature in Goal of the Month in the Premier League.[8] He told Newstalk's Team 33 in 2014 that his favourite goal was the one he scored against Liverpool.[9] The goal against Wimbledon was awarded Goal of the Season in 1995–96.[8] Until Gareth Bale equalled the feat in 2013, Yeboah was the only player ever to win successive BBC Match of the Day Goal of the Month competitions, doing so in September and October 1995.[10]

He also scored three hat-tricks for Leeds; the first against Ipswich Town in the Premier League at Elland Road on 5 April 1995, which made him the second foreign player to score a league hat-trick for Leeds (Cantona v Tottenham in August 1992 was the first), three months after Phil Masinga became the first foreign player to score a hat-trick for the club when he found the net three times in an FA Cup tie.[11] Yeboah's second hat-trick came against Monaco in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup on 12 September 1995, and the third 11 days later in the Premier League match against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park which included the aforementioned Goal of the Season.[12] A video was released named ‘Yeboah – Shoot to Kill’ while he was at Leeds.[13] Injuries (several picked up while on international duty) restricted his game when he played and kept him out of the Leeds side on several occasions.[8] When George Graham took over as manager, there was a clash of personalities and Yeboah was sold to Hamburger SV in September 1997, having played just six times under Graham.[8]

Later career

Yeboah joined German club Hamburger SV and remained there until 2001, scoring 28 goals,[14] in order to join Al Ittihad, where he played under Austrian coach Josef Hickersberger.[15]

International career

He was a member of Ghana's national team for over ten years, and represented his country at three Africa Cup of Nations during the 1990s. Yeboah scored 29 goals in 59 appearances for Ghana, the third highest goalscoring total in the nation's history behind Abedi Pele and Asamoah Gyan.[16][17]

Post-playing career

On 3 November 2008, he was appointed as the new chairman of the newly promoted Ghana Premier League club Berekum Chelsea.[18]

Personal life

Yeboah runs an international sports agency called Anthony Yeboah Sportpromotion and owns a chain of hotels in Ghana (Accra, Kumasi) called Yegoala.[19] He is married and has two children.[20]

His nephew, Kelvin Yeboah, is also a professional footballer and plays for Austrian Football Bundesliga side WSG Swarovski Tirol.[21]

Career statistics

[13][22][3]

Club performance League Cup Other Continental Total
SeasonClubLeague AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
Germany League DFB-Pokal Playoff Europe Total
1988–89Saarbrücken2. Bundesliga2892022–3211
1989–9037171221–4020
1990–91Eintracht FrankfurtBundesliga26862–113311
1991–92341510–323817
1992–93272065–453730
1993–94221821–312720
1994–9514721–532111
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1994–95Leeds UnitedPremier League18122100–2013
1995–9622126173433919
1996–97700000–70
Germany League DFB-Pokal DFB-Ligapokal Europe Total
1997–98Hamburger SVBundesliga23300–00233
1998–99341432––3716
1999–200024910–633112
2000–01142101092144
2001–025000––50
Total Germany 2881222513533117349155
England 47248273436632
Career total 33514633151263520415189

International goals

African Cup of nations only.

Honours

[3][23]

Asante Kotoko

Leeds United

Al Ittihad

Ghana

Individual

References
  1. "Tony Yeboah". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  2. "Aubameyang equals Ghana legend Tony Yeboah's Bundesliga record after claiming golden boot - GHANAsoccernet.com". social_image. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  3. "Tony Yeboah". RSSSF. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  4. Ungruhe, Christian (2013). "Natural Born Sportsmen - processes of othering and self-charismatization of African professional footballers in Germany" (PDF). African Diaspora (6): 203–204.
  5. "Anthony Yeboah: Missing The Frankfurters". Eintracht Frankfurt. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  6. "(West) Germany – Top Scorers". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  7. "ON THIS DAY: 1995 Leeds United signed Tony Yeboah from Eintracht Frankfurt". Modern Ghana. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  8. "Leeds United: Twenty years on, is this Yeboah goal now regarded as United's best?". Yorkshire Evening Post. 17 August 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  9. "Tony Yeboah talks golazos; Reigniting FIFA vs PES wars".
  10. "Anthony Yeboah – I Followed My Dreams". Modern Ghana. 20 February 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  12. Brenkley, Stephen (23 September 1995). "Yeboah up to his old tricks". Independent. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  13. "Yeboah: Anthony (Tony)". Ozwhitelufc.net.au. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  14. Arnhold, Matthias. "Anthony 'Tony' Yeboah – League Matches and Goals". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  15. "Yeboah goes East". BBC Sport. 11 December 2001. Retrieved 29 August 2007.
  16. "Tony Yeboah". worldfootball.net. World Football. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  17. "Top 5 Ghanaian players who made their mark in the English Premier League". Ghana Soccernet. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  18. "We will survive-Tony Yeboah". Modern Ghana. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  19. Lomas, Mark (27 August 2013). "Whatever happened to ... Tony Yeboah?". ESPN. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  20. Alderman, Rob (17 January 2011). "What Ever Happened To: Tony Yeboah". In The Stands. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  21. "EXCLUSIVE: Tony Yeboah's son Kelvin signs one-year deal with German side WSG Wattens". Ghana Soccernet. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  22. "Anthony Yeboah" (in German). fussballdaten.de. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  23. "Tony Yeboah, one of the first black players to play in Germany". Football Memories. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  24. "Bundesliga Historie 1992/93" (in German). kicker.
  25. "Bundesliga Historie 1993/94" (in German). kicker.
  26. Pierrend, José Luis (16 January 2014). "FIFA Awards". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  27. "Anthony Yeboah: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
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