There’s nothing quite like a goal on your debut to get the fans on board, whether that’s stepping up from the youth team or making your first appearance following a big-money transfer.
A total of 76 Leeds United players have scored on their debuts for the club, with Joel Piroe being the last man to achieve such a feat when he bagged against Ipswich Town last season.
November 14 marks the anniversary of one of the most memorable goalscoring Leeds debuts, when a teenage Alan Smith announced his arrival by netting at Anfield.
Here is a look at some of the most memorable goalscoring Leeds bows from the club’s illustrious history.
Alan Smith – Liverpool 1-3 Leeds United, 1998
Alan Smith may have blotted his Leeds United copybook when he moved across the Pennines to join Manchester United in 2004, but his Whites debut was the stuff dreams were made of.
The 18-year-old Thorp Arch product scored with his very first touch in the Premier League when he came off the bench at Liverpool, with Leeds trailing Liverpool 1-0. His introduction helped inspire Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to a late brace as Leeds left Anfield with all three points.
David O’Leary had been appointed Leeds manager less than a month earlier and this was an early sign that he was going to build his side around an exciting crop of homegrown players.
Samu Saiz – Leeds United 4-1 Port Vale, 2017
Yes, the opposition was less stellar, but Samu Saiz took full advantage of playing against League Two Port Vale by scoring a hat-trick on his Whites debut, the first Leeds player to do so since Carl Shutt in 1989.
It had been a summer of change at Elland Road after Andrea Radrizzani completed his takeover from Massimo Cellino and the unpredictable Saiz was arguably the most exciting player the club brought in.
Leeds fans were given early hope that they had a game-changing talent in their squad, but disciplinary issues stalled his progress at Leeds, with Saiz failing to get on board with Marcelo Bielsa’s methods when the Argentine arrived the following summer.
Brian Deane – Man City 1-1 Leeds United, 1993
Leeds broke their transfer record to bring striker Brian Deane in from rivals Sheffield United in the summer of 1993, spending £2.9million on the Leeds-born forward.
Leeds had just completed a woeful defence of their league title finishing the previous campaign in 17th place and threw Deane straight into the starting line-up for their opening day trip to Maine Road, with the striker responding with a debut goal as he netted an injury-time equaliser in a 1-1 draw.
Eddie Gray – Leeds United 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday, 1966
Eddie Gray is Mr Leeds United. Not only is he one of the club’s greatest-ever players and a former Whites manager, but he also stands at the head of the team’s best-ever family dynasty, with three generations of his family pulling on a Leeds shirt.
It can therefore be argued that New Year’s Day, 1966 is one of the most important days in the history of the club, as a 17-year-old Gray made a goalscoring debut at Elland Road, a match which the Scot admitted to the Leeds website earlier this year remains his favourite ever game.
“The game I look back on with the most fondness was my first game, when I made my debut at 17. It was against Sheffield Wednesday at Elland Road and that meant a lot for a Scotsman, to make your debut on New Years Day.
“So if people say to me, if you had to pick one game out, it would be that game, it wouldn’t be a cup final, it wouldn’t be any of the European games, just that first game. You know, that’s something you don’t forget.”
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Bobby Collins – Leeds United 2-0 Swansea, 1962
Don Revie would describe Bobby Collins as his best-ever signing at Leeds, which is quite the accolade when you consider just how many iconic players came into the club during the next two decades.
The diminutive Scottish midfield made a goalscoring debut against Swansea City in March 1962, as he helped drag Leeds out of the Division Two relegation fight as the building blocks for the club’s Golden Age were beginning to be put into place.
Interestingly, Leeds’ next match against Swansea the following season saw Revie hand debuts to Paul Reaney, Rod Johnson and Norman Hunter as the Whites juggernaut began to stir.
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