He joined Leeds United as a striker but became a club legend after 284 appearances as a defender

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Things often don’t go as expected in football. Especially at Leeds United.

That is often for worse, like Leeds United failing to win the play-off final and spending another year in the Championship, or sometimes it can be for better.

Like the time the club signed a teenage striker only for him to go on and become a heroic defender instead.

Though Daniel Farke is going on about making new ones with his quality squad that is aiming to finally return to the Premier League, Leeds already have a laundry list of legends from throughout the club’s illustrious history.

Many immortal names like Billy Bremner, Eddie Gray and Jack Charlton are synonymous with the club’s glory years in the 1950s-70s and even more were made in the late 90s and early 2000s as Leeds returned to the big time.

One of the most important players during the club’s last forays into Europe, going as far as the Champions League semi-finals, was beloved defender Ian Harte.

However, the fan-favourite has revealed that he was never supposed to be a left-back.

Ian Harte was a striker when he first signed for Leeds United

Speaking in an interview with OnlyLeedsBros, Harte was asked about what it was like to sign for Leeds when he was still just a teenager, helped by the fact his uncle Gary Kelly played for the club.

When discussing his early struggles after moving to a new country, Harte also revealed he was actually signed as a striker after a successful striker.

He said: “I played for St Kevin’s at the time, uncle Gary was over in Leeds so I got invited in for a trial. Paul Hart was the youth team manager, was over there about three, four days and ended up getting signed as a striker!”

As the interviewers looked on disbelief, Harte added: “Yes! Gary was a striker and ended up at right back, I was a striker and ended up at left-back. It was obviously pretty amazing to get asked to come across and sign. It was brilliant.

“Having Gary at Leeds at the time, a 16-year-old moving to a different country knowing nobody else I was homesick quite a bit. It was difficult but it was brilliant to have Gary to help me through the difficult times.”

Ian Harte still managed to score lots of goals for Leeds United

Though he didn’t become the striker he wanted, that didn’t stop Harte from contributing a very good amount of goals during his years at Elland Road.

Harte became a free-kick specialist and deadly from the penalty spot, which saw him score 38 goals across his 284 games for Leeds from the back-line.

In total, during his illustrious career of 631 appearances for club and country, he scored an impressive 96 times.

His favourite is one that every Leeds fan will be familiar with. He added: “Elland Road, Deportivo, quarter-finals of the Champions League.

“Probably the best atmosphere I’ve ever experienced. I scored the goal, the free-kick, went and smashed it in. That stands out.

“I would probably say that goal, that night. As a young lad, when you’re watching telly and hear that Champions League music, let alone walking out to it, scoring in it. It was pretty special that night.”