By Opoku Augustus, kickgh.com
Former Leeds United star, Anthony Yeboah has showered praise on Crystal Palace striker Jordan Ayew after equaling his record of most goals scored by a Ghanaian in the English Premier League.
Ayew, 28, levelled Yeboah’s tally of 24 goals in the Premier League after the Palace striker scored the only goal and his eighth in their 1-0 victory over Watford at Selhurst Park last Saturday.
Jordan Ayew
“He is doing very well. I am very happy for him,” Tony Yeboah told Kumasi-based Angel FM.
“It’s not easy to score 24 goals in the English Premier League. Though he played so many matches before he equaled the record but I believe he can score more goals if he stays for more years in the league,” he asserted.
Tony Yeboah made 47 appearance for Leeds United in the English Premier League while Ayew, the former Olympique Marseille goal poacher, has now made 128 appearance for Crystal Palace, Swansea City and Aston Villa following his arrival from France in 2015.
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Born 6 June 1966, Yeboah played as a striker from 1981 to 2002 and is considered one of the most prominent and prolific goal scorers in Ghanaian and African football history and gained a reputation for scoring spectacular goals which often featured in Goal of the Month or Goal of the Season.
Yeboah is most noted for his time at European clubs 1. FC Saarbrucken, Eintracht Frankfurt, Leeds United and Hamburger SV during the 1990s.
Tony Yeboah in his heydays
He won the Bundesliga Golden Boot on two occasions in 1992-93, 1993-94 playing for Eintracht Frankfurt.
He was capped 59 times by Ghana, scoring 29 goals in a span of 10 years in which he represented his country at three Africa Cup of Nations in the the 1990s.
At 29 goals, he is he third highest goalscoring total in the nation’s history behind Abedi Pele and Asamoah Gyan.
Asamoah Gyan
When he joined German club 1. FC Saarbrucken in 1988, Yeboah made some history by becoming one of the first black players to appear in the Bundesliga.
Yeboah joined English club Leeds United from Eintracht Frankfurt for £3.4 million in January 1995 and in his second season he was voted Player of the Year after scoring a total of 32 goals for Leeds United in 66 appearances.
Yeboah still revered at Leeds United
He is still revered as a cult hero for Leeds United due to a series of memorable goals he scored.
Up until Gareth Bale equalled the feat in 2013, Yeboah was the only player ever to win successive BBC Match of the Day Goal of the Month competitions, doing so in September and October 1995.
He also scored three hat-tricks for Leeds; the first against Ipswich Town in the Premier League at Elland Road on 5 April 1995, which made him the second foreign player to score a league hat-trick for Leeds.
Cantona v Tottenham in August 1992 was the first.
At Leeds, Yeboah played alongside South African Phil Masinga, who became the first foreign player to score a hat-trick for the club when he found the net three times in an FA Cup tie.
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Married and has two childre, Yeboah runs an international sports agency called Anthony Yeboah Sportpromotion and owns a chain of hotels in Accra and Kumasi called Yegoala.