After so long out of the game, former Leeds United frontman Kemar Roofe is back in professional football.
Not only that, he’s back in the Championship, joining the club against whom he scored perhaps the most memorable goal of his Leeds United career.
Well, that was until Marcelo Bielsa’s debut season at Elland Road fell to bits in the space of one miserable afternoon against Frank Lampard’s Derby County; That bitter, fiercely-contested play-off semi-final still as fresh in the memory now as it was back then.
Six years after Roofe scored the winner in the first leg at Pride Park – a 1-0 victory putting Leeds within touching distance of Wembley – the veteran forward now finds himself tasked with keeping the wolf from The Rams’ door.
Former Leeds United striker Kemar Roofe joins Derby County
It’s been quite the fall for Derby in the half-decade since losing to an Aston Villa side containing Jack Grealish, Axel Tuanzebe and Tammy Abraham at the national stadium. A return to the Premier League slipping agonisingly through their fingers.
Derby went from the verge of promotion to the ignominy of relegation in the space of just three years.
And while League One specialist Paul Warne may have succeeded in taking the East Midlands outfit back to the second tier last season, his replacement John Eustace may soon be regretting leaving a play-off battle with Blackburn Rovers in favour of circling the plughole at Derby.
Only one team in the Championship has accumulated fewer points than The Rams, Leeds beating Derby twice with Brenden Aaronson netting the winner at Pride Park in December.
Only three have scored fewer goals.
So, this is where Kemar Roofe comes in. Eustace will be praying that, despite his most recent league appearance coming at Rangers ten months ago, the 32-year-old still has a lot left to offer.
Roofe signs on a short-term deal until the end of the season.
Roofe asked about play-off drama six years on
“It was one that I wasn’t expecting!” Roofe explains, opening up on his surprise return to the Championship stage. “But the final part is the most important and I’m here now.”
Roofe conducted an interview with Derby’s in-house media channels on Thursday during his official unveiling. To quote the man on the other side of the camera, Rams fans might not have particularly ‘fond memories’ of a man who scored four times in the colours of Leeds United against his new employers.
One of those coming in the play-off semi-finals, another in a 2-0 home win in the league, and a brace in a 4-1 thrashing at Pride Park.
Roofe, understandably, was keen to avoid letting himself get misty-eyed recalling the past when the present sees him tasked with saving Leeds’ old promotion rivals from the drop.
“As a striker, you kind of remember all your goals,” Roofe adds. You mind need reminding a little bit but, as soon as you see it, you feel like you’re in that moment again in slow motion.
“Hopefully I can score goals for Derby. A massive club. Coming to the training ground, the facilities, the new gaffer as well was a major factor in my decision to come here. Everybody has made me feel welcome.
“[I am] more experienced, and every season I try and learn something new. Hopefully I can show that.”
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