Dom Matteo names the one player he still cannot believe played for Leeds United

Add as preferred source on Google

Legendary Leeds United defender Dominic Matteo has named the former player he still cannot believe represented the club.

Dom Matteo played with some of the greatest players in Leeds’ modern history, as he formed an integral part of the side under David O’Leary in the early 2000s.

That Leeds side featured the likes of legendary former captain Lucas Radebe, club icon David Batty and the mercurially gifted forward, Mark Viduka.

However, Matteo’s pick does not come from the Leeds team that he played in, as he praised one of the members of the Leeds team that took the Premier League by storm under Marcelo Bielsa.

Which former Leeds player would you have back, if you could pick one? Raphinha surely has to be up there💎

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Dom Matteo praised a member of Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United squad

Speaking to LUTV in the build-up to Leeds’ hard-earned draw against Brentford, Matteo gave his reflections on the Whites’ last win over the Bees in 2022.

Raphinha was the hero for Leeds on that day, scoring a goal and producing a brilliant performance as his side secured their Premier League status.

According to Matteo, he still cannot believe that the Brazilian ever played for the club, given what he has gone on to achieve with Barcelona.

Matteo said: “I still can’t believe we had a player like Raphinha. I mean, what a player. What a player. I mean, whoever recruited him, fair play.

“You need people like him to get things done, and the way he stepped up there [to score his 2022 penalty against Brentford], no problems.

“Jermaine [Beckford] probably wouldn’t have been, but I would have been like, ‘Oh no’, but it just shows you his quality.”

• READ MORE: Seth Johnson tells story of how Leeds United duo threw Peter Ridsdale into a water feature

Leeds United still need to find their Raphinha in Premier League survival bid

Leeds were unable to replicate their 2022 success against Brentford, as Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored Leeds’ only goal of the game to secure a hard-earned point.

That goal took Calvert-Lewin’s goal tally to five for the season, as he does his best to emulate Patrick Bamford’s success during Leeds’ first year back in the Premier League in 2020.

However, according to Transfermarkt, Raphinha also chipped in with six goals and nine assists to help Leeds to a ninth-place finish under Bielsa.

While Leeds have never looked likely to emulate the success of that season, they still need another player to chip in with the kind of creativity that Raphinha brought to Bielsa’s side.

Noah Okafor has shown he can do so in flashes, but Daniel Farke needs him to add the kind of end product Raphinha provided so often during his time at Elland Road.