Last legs, lasting legacy

In September 1994 Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson paid £250 000 for a young South African called Lucas Radebe (and his pal, Philemon Masinga) to help his side recover the form that had won the championship in 1991.

Ten years later, ‘The Chief” is about to bow out, his reputation unsullied but his legs spent. His contract has one year left to run — his testimonial year — and it looks like he won’t kick a ball all winter.

At 35, after 199 League appearances and no goals, Radebe was one of the few Leeds veterans to stay at Elland Road despite last season’s catastrophic relegation.

But early on during his first game in the so-called ‘championship” (formerly known as Division One and, before 1992, Division Two), against Wolves at Molineux last Saturday, the man from Soweto ruptured an Achilles tendon.

Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell, who has seen 13 overpaid, over-hyped ‘stars” leave since the financially stricken club failed to survive the relegation cut, said: ‘It really is a travesty for Leeds United and Lucas Radebe.

‘We knew from the minute it happened it was a serious problem. But Lucas does not know the meaning of the word adversity; he always has a smile on his face and the man was still cheering the boys as they came into the changing room because he knows how important that was for Leeds.”

Typical of the man, really. Although he was signed as a midfielder by Wilkinson from Kaizer Chiefs, it was the next Leeds manager, George Graham, who transformed Radebe into a central defender and later described him as ‘the best man marker in the Premiership”.

Next boss David O’Leary and current manager Blackwell have been similarly overwhelmed by the man’s work ethic, his ability to inspire, his calm assurance.

There are many quotes we can pluck from the Radebe file. But South Africa’s most-capped footballer, with 69 appearances, says: ‘Football has played an important part in uniting races in South Africa, and that is one of the best things I have done.”

Radebe, shot during the troubled apartheid years in Soweto, would know all about that. As he waits six months for medical results on his Achilles operation, he will consider a future in politics or the media at the southern tip of Africa.

In Britain he will be remembered as a man of astonishing durability, a man who came through all kinds of injuries (knees, ankles, head) to gain a fearsome reputation as an international-class defender.

It was under Radebe’s leadership that Leeds, dormant since the Don Revie era of the 1970s, became a real force in English football again.

Not bad for a lad with five brothers and six sisters from Diepkloof Zone Four, Soweto. At the age of 15, he was sent to the former Bophuthatswana, where he was advised to play football — as a goalkeeper.

When Radebe went shopping for his mother in Soweto in 1991, on hearing one of the daily township gunshots ring out, he found himself bleeding with a hole in his back. His leg lost feeling. Radebe feared for his footballing future but he suffered no serious problems. The bullet exited through his leg and his future career remained intact.

Some think Wilkinson only signed Radebe to keep striker Masinga happy at Leeds. But when Ghanaian striker Tony Yeboah arrived at Elland Road, Masinga went to Italy and Radebe stayed on to become one of the club’s most popular imports.

Remember, this was the club that fielded the first-ever black South African, Capetonian Albert Johanneson, in the 1960s. Radebe was made captain in 1998 and former Millwall and Arsenal boss Graham said: ‘It shows the confidence I have in him and how much I rate him.”

The high point came in 2000 when Leeds finished third in the Premiership and reached the last four of the Champions League.

The dodgy old knees, perhaps a legacy of those formative years on the street corner with a tennis ball, gave out at about the same time and Radebe’s career looked as though it was over. But somehow he returned for the 2002 World Cup to lead South Africa’s campaign for the second time, performing with verve and restoring his dignity.

Radebe created a European belief in South Africa players. He was the first of a queue that now features Quinton Fortune, Benni McCarthy, Mark Fish and Shaun Bartlett, to name just a few.

He is also a Fifa ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages and Fifa chairperson Antonion Matarrese says: ‘Lucas is not only a fantastic and fair player on the field, but also has a great personality off the pitch, with a big heart for the children of the world.”

Radebe is unlikely to play professionally in Britain again. He’ll be sorely missed, particularly in Yorkshire.

But you can’t help thinking there is a big future out there for a man with his qualities. President Radebe perhaps? Don’t bet against it!