Carlton Palmer reveals what fuelled one of Tony Yeboah's most devastating Leeds United performances - Leeds Live


Yeboah's former Elland Road teammate has cast his mind back to a 1995 UEFA Cup clash where the Ghanaian stole the show

Tony Yeboah may have only turned out 66 times for Leeds United during his mid-90s spell at Elland Road, but few players have ever captured the imagination like the powerful Ghanian.

A club record £3.4million signing from Eintracht Frankfurt in January 1995, Yeboah can lay claim to two of the best goals in the club's history, with his strikes against Liverpool and Wimbledon always included in any Premier League greatest-ever goal debate.

While those two goals stand front and centre in his Whites' highlights reel, his of his best all-round goalscoring performances came in a September 1995 UEFA Cup tie in Monaco.

Yeboah bagged a hat-trick to seal 3-0 first-leg win for Leeds at the Stade Louis II and help set up a round two tie against PSV Eindhoven.

And according to one of his teammates that night, the key to the performance was brandy.

Former Whites midfielder Carlton Palmer recalled the trip to the principality in the latest episode of the Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? podcast, including the pair's antics the night before the tie.

"One of the stories was I used to have a drink the night before the game," said Palmer. "We've finished dinner and we were playing Monaco in the Champions League [sic]. He said: 'Where are you going, C?' I said 'I'm going up the rooftop bar to have a drink'. So he said, 'I'll come with you'. I said: 'Tony, I don't think that's a good idea mate. The gaffer knows I have a drink, but I'm not getting involved here.' 'No worries, no worries.'

"So I'm having a glass of wine, just sitting there, beautiful views looking over Monaco. We've got a tough game. They've got a good side. They've got Blanc, Deschamps [sic] in there, good side. We've got a tough game on our hands tomorrow. He's playing up front on his own.

"So, I said to him, you need to get some rest, son. It could be a tough gig tomorrow. So he starts having a brandy. I said to him, 'Tony, I really don't think this is a good idea mate.' He must have had about four large brandies. I said you get yourself to bed and don't say anything to the gaffer.

"The next day he scores a hat-trick. And he's shouting in the dressing room, 'it's the brandy, it's the brandy!'

"I'm going Tony, don't say that! The gaffer's going to be at me!"

They were three of the 32 goals Yeboah scored in a Leeds shirt and Palmer has nothing but praise for his former teammates 'violent' style in front of goal.

"Tony was brilliant," he continues. "Tony was absolutely brilliant. Loved him to death, great, great footballer.

"He was a phenomenal goalscoerer. Anything that was played into him in and around the box, it was like 'boom' and it stuck to him.

"And he had a big old arse. Once he struck that arse into you, if you got too tight and he spun you on that left hand side forget it, because he only used to move the ball half a yard and then it was violent. Everything was violent. But he could play."

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