I blame Jimmy Hill. Before the biggest chin in football successfully lobbied for the removal of the maximum wage in football, player power was virtually non-existent. Players were transferred when the clubs wanted to, and there was non of this “bigger than the club” nonsense. Nowadays however, with a little nudge from their Mr 15%, countless players engineer moves with their outrageous wage demands, and it was on this day in 2000 that Leeds United striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink sealed his big-money move to Athletico Madrid.

Jimmy, or Jerrel as his mother calls him, was a relatively late-bloomer. A series of short spells in the Netherlands and Portugal ended with a prolific season for Boavista in 1996/97, which saw him secure a £2m move to George Graham’s Leeds United.

Hasselbaink would soon become a fans’ favourite at Elland Road, where his predatory instinct and thunderbolt shot fired him to the top of the Premiership scoring charts. He could also never be accused of lacking in passion. Like all good strikers, as the saying goes, Jimmy was never shy to take a pop at goal and could often be seen manically waving his arms in the air, eyes bulging out of his head, at team-mates who had the audacity not to pass to him when he stalked the opposition’s goal.



This was possibly also the way he entered contract negations with the Leeds board. Having been Leeds’ leading scorer for the past two years, Jimmy believed that the club owed him big. It was rumoured that Jimmy was demanding £60,000 a week, which would easily make him the highest paid player in the league. These figures were so extreme that even Peter “Father Christmas” Ridsdale quickly told him where to go, and Jimmy soon requested to be put on the transfer list.

With several top European clubs tracking Hasselbaink, Athletico Madrid stepped in with a £12m offer that was soon accepted, and Jimmy was off to sunny Spain. He would only last one season in La Liga, and rather fittingly for a man who David O’Leary once said “he believed he was a special case”, Jimmy would not only get the personal glory of finishing as the leagues top goalscorer, but would also suffer the ignominy of relegation.

Still, despite being what Alex Turner might describe as a ‘mardy bum’, Jimmy certainly knew how to score a goal. See footage below of what, if not for a certain non-flying Dutchman, would be the greatest hat-trick ever seen in the Premiership, and be sure to join us tomorrow for (if you can bear it England fans) a look at an historic penalty shoot-out.

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