Leeds at the beginning of the millennium were a very tough team to face. This is also thanks to the colony of Australians present, albeit small. Harry Kewell was the brains, Mark Viduka the arm. A huge center forward, difficult to move, who also scored a fair amount of goals. With the Wallabes national team he was captain in 2006. In his four years with Leeds he reached double figures four times, also reaching the threshold of twenty.
There was a year, 2000-01, in which there was also the possibility of seeing the Elland Road team regain the polish of the seventies. Leeds had finished third in the Premier League the year before behind the unreachable Manchester United, 93 points, and Arsenal with 72. To understand the difference, in the following season Manchester City were relegated to the Championship for the last time before advent of Shinawatra and then of the Arabs. In any case, Viduka was at Celtic that season and with 25 goals in 28 games he had the chance to play in the Champions League.
Group with Milan and Barcelona, finished as second. Then with Real Madrid, Anderlecht and Lazio (the one that had just won the Scudetto). Won quarter-finals with Deportivo La Coruña, only to then give way to Mendieta and Hector Cuper’s Valencia who then lost in the final against Bayern Munich on penalties. Mark Viduka turns 49 today.