Leeds United parade transfer rumour truth revealed and Ethan Ampadu 'Real Betis' antics explained — YEP 6/5/25
By Graham Smyth
A 21-year-old's laundry situation sparked a Leeds United
summer transfer window rumour on the day of their promotion parade.
Paraag Marathe, Daniel Farke, his staff, the squad and a
host of club officials boarded three open-top buses for a one-mile tour of the
city centre on Bank Holiday Monday. Leeds City Council have estimated that
150,000-plus packed the route with fans flooding into the city from early on in
the morning to get the best vantage points. There were supporters up trees,
traffic lights, bus shelters, on balconies, scaffolding, steps and at any
window that overlooked incredible scenes as flares and fireworks greeted the
Championship title winners.
Star of the show throughout an unforgettable day was Leeds
captain Ethan Ampadu, who showed little interest in being interviewed on the
bus by the club's in-house media channel and instead preferred to take control
of the microphone and lead the city centre in renditions of various songs and
chants. A visibly 'merry' Ampadu started the singing in tribute to numerous
team-mates including Manor Solomon, Ilia Gruev, Joe Rodon and Patrick Bamford.
He also mischievously sang a song encouraging Sam Byram to remain at the club
for two more years.
Ethan Ampadu’s ‘transfer rumour’
But the skipper was also incorrectly attributed with
breaking a transfer secret during the parade. Viewers of the club's live stream
mistakenly took Ampadu's yelling of 'Betis, Betis, Real Betis' into the
microphone while next to Junior Firpo as a hint that the left-back is set for a
return to his home town club in Spain. Firpo joined Betis as a teenager and
played two seasons of La Liga football as a youngster before moving to
Barcelona. He recently told the YEP that the love for him at his first club was
mutual.
Ampadu's excitement was not an over-excited leak of football
transfer business, however. The Welsh international had simply spotted a Real
Betis shirt in the crowd. It was worn by lifelong Leeds supporter Noel, 21, who
later outed himself on social media with pictorial evidence that he was the
subject of Ampadu's shouts.
"I didn’t have much time to get anything washed so just
grabbed that," he told the YEP. "I didn’t remember Firpo played there
until Ampadu shouted at me. I thought it was brilliant, looking on Twitter and
seeing Betis fans getting excited was a sweetener. It was a top day out."
Junior Firpo contract situation
Firpo later appeared on Jayden Bogle's live video broadcast
on Instagram and jokingly told club chairman Marathe to 'send the ting' in
reference to a new deal. Firpo, along with Byram and Josuha Guilavogi, is out
of contract this summer. Bogle then encouraged his fellow full-back to 'sign
the ting' as they partied in a city centre pub. In an exclusive interview with
the YEP after promotion was sealed Firpo admitted he still had no idea what the
club's plans were for his future but said he and his family love living here
and he's enjoying