Jermain Defoe details how a move to Leeds almost materialised
Jermain Defoe has admitted that he had a phone call about joining Leeds United back in 2004, but decided to move to Tottenham instead.
Defoe is 37 now and still knocking in the goals in Scotland for Rangers.
16 years before that he was just 21 and looking to leave West Ham.
In a fascinating interview on Sky Sports, Defoe reveals he had a call from his agent 24 hours before the 2004 winter transfer window closed.
“Right, I’ve just had a phone call from Daniel Levy, do you want to go to Tottenham?”
“Yeah, let’s make it happen,” Defoe said.
“I wanted to be back playing in the Premier League,” Defoe said. “I did get a phone call about Leeds when they had all those players there and were doing well, but when I got the Tottenham call I wanted to go there.
“I know my football so I started thinking about all of the great forwards that played for that club like (Jurgen) Klinsmann, (Gary) Lineker and Gazza (Paul Gascoigne).
“It just felt right.”
Defoe went on to score 143 goals for Tottenham in 361 games across two stints.
Spurs finished in 14th place in the Premier League in the 2003/04 season while Leeds were relegated.
Defoe scored seven goals in 15 games for Spurs that season, while Mark Viduka got 11 and Alan Smith got nine for the season at Leeds.
Would things have turned out differently had Defoe signed for Leeds? We’re not convinced another goal-scorer would have changed things. It’s not like Viduka didn’t know where the goal was.
However, there’s no doubting Defoe is one of the best strikers in England of the last couple of decades and we’d have loved to see him at Leeds.
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