Leeds United have a striker banging in the goals this season in Joel Piroe. But there’s something about the Dutchman that doesn’t yet rank him among some of the club’s former fan favourites.
For a striker who’s already scored 15 goals in the Championship this season, Leeds fans aren’t all impressed with Joel Piroe.
There’s something about his game that remains very frustrating: Daniel Farke says Piroe is slow, he’s often wasteful, and expensive for what he’s really contributed to the team over the last season-and-a-half.
There’s still time yet for the Dutchman to write himself into Leeds United folklore. He could yet do that this season if he can remain prolific and fire Daniel Farke’s side into the Premier League.
If he can do that then Piroe and indeed the rest of his Leeds United teammates will go down as modern day legends at Elland Road.
But Piroe may never come close to being as much of a fan favourite as Luciano Becchio.
What Luciano Becchio revealed about his 2013 Leeds United exit
Becchio, now 41, played for Leeds United between 2008 and 2013. In 221 total games for the Whites, Argentinian striker Becchio went on to score 87 goals, scoring 15 as Leeds won promotion from League One during the 2009/10 season, with 17 goals in all competitions that year.
He went on to score 20 in the following campaign, but Becchio would eventually leave for Norwich City midway through the 2012/13 campaign. Despite getting a crack at the Premier League with Norwich, Becchio’s career had already peaked at Elland Road: he scored just seven more goals in the rest of his career before retiring in 2017.
Speaking to The Athletic in a 2020 interview, Becchio revealed how the club under then manager Neil Warnock, who boasted just a 36.5% win record whilst at Leeds United, didn’t help Becchio to stay at the club, seemingly with both the club and Warnock not fancying the striker.
Becchio explained: “There was a real offer from Turkey. Then, at the last moment, Norwich appeared. I went several times to meet with Leeds and tried to stay. I did my best but I saw no effort. I called Warnock to meet him and see what could be done. We met but I didn’t get much of a response from him. I honestly don’t know if it was the coach’s wish for me to leave or if the club wanted to cash in on me. In the end, my family and I made a super-difficult decision.
The Leeds cult hero then went on to reveal how he wanted to finish his career with Leeds United, adding: “As I said before, I’d have liked to have finished my career at Leeds but I felt compelled to leave. Of course I was very sorry but I had no choice. The club told me to request a transfer in order to leave.”
Luciano Becchio is £30m former Leeds United star’s icon
More than two years ago now, Becchio was Leeds United’s main source of goals, and for a lot of fans in that era, he was their favourite player.
And as it goes, one now former Leeds player was such a fan; Archie Gray. Speaking earlier this season, Gray said Becchio was his Leeds United idol growing up. He explained: “Someone that I used to watch all the time as Luciano Becchio, I was a ball-boy at Leeds and I got to see him pretty much every game.
“Even if I saw him now, I saw him a few times last season and I was like, ‘woah, that’s Becchio’. He probably doesn’t remember me as a ball boy, but watching him he was a great player.”
If Becchio had finished his career at Leeds then he might well have played under Marcelo Bielsa who arrived in 2018 when Becchio would’ve been 33, turning 34.
Winning promotion to the Premier League would’ve been the absolute crowning glory of Becchio’s Leeds United career should he have stayed. But Warnock had other plans it seems.
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
