The Australian is no longer a popular figure at Elland Road.
Leeds United fans are no longer partial to Harry Kewell. The former club hero became a villain for his move to Galatasaray – a team rightly vilified by Leeds fans.
Regardless of the feelings toward Kewell now there is no doubting the fact he was a special talent. The Australian headed over to England with future Blackburn Rovers midfielder Brett Emerton in 1995 from Sydney.
Today he spoke about that experience on Sky Sports Soccer AM programme. He mentioned how intimidated he was meeting academy director Paul Hart and hoe he played his first youth game for Leeds illegally:
“I had the option to come over to Leeds for the month with Brett Emerton. So we came over by ourselves, got the plane to London, made our way up north on a train for the first time – it was an experience.
“When we got there we met Paul Hart for the first time, which was quite intimidating because he was a big bloke.
“We went over there for a reason, to understand and see what it was like but we just got to work.
“I say to my players now, whenever you get a chance, you have to impress. So when i was over there I was impressing. I actually played my first game for Leeds under a different name because we weren’t allowed to do it. So my first name for Leeds was Lawrence Davies.
“It was a long time ago, things have changed now.”
Of course Hart has recently been re-appointed into his role at Leeds. He took over after Neil Redfearn’s exit this summer and he is still a stature of a man who likely makes several Leeds youngsters quake in their boots.
As for Lawrence Davies, well he never quite made it to the level that Kewell did. The Welshman never featured for the Leeds first-team before spells at Bradford City, Darlington and Brighton and Hove Albion. He is perhaps best known for his spell at Barry Town before retiring in 2004 after a stint with Cwmbran.
But he clearly played a significant part in the beginning of Kewell’s career.
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