Leeds United youngster James Debayo made his first-team debut for the club in the dramatic 4-3 win over Swansea in Wales in the Championship last month.
The 19-year-old centre-back is the latest player to come up through the academy system to play for the senior side, and he will now hope to rack up some more appearances between now and the end of the season.
Mateo Joseph, however, has been the breakthrough academy graduate of the 2024/25 campaign for the West Yorkshire outfit so far, as he has emerged as a regular option for Daniel Farke.
The Spain U21 international was a part of the squad last season but all 20 of his appearances in the Championship came as a substitute, with the likes of Georginio Rutter, Joel Piroe, and Patrick Bamford preferred ahead of him from the start.
So far this term, Joseph has started eight of his 19 outings in the second tier and has contributed with two goals and four ‘big chances’ created for the team.
Farke will now be hoping that the 21-year-old ace can kick on and emerge as a star for the Whites, to join a long list of impressive Leeds academy graduates.
Leeds United’s best modern-day academy graduates
Leeds have brought through and developed some fantastic prospects in recent years and one of them currently plays alongside Joseph in the first-team – Pascal Struijk.
The Dutchman joined the academy from Ajax at the start of 2018 and became a regular, with 27 Premier League appearances, in the 2020/21 campaign. He has played 140 matches for the club to date, and started all 18 league games this season.
One of the best success stories in recent years is central midfielder Kalvin Phillips, who rose through the ranks before being sold for a huge transfer fee.
The England international joined in 2010 and eventually broke into the first-team and made 234 appearances in all competitions, before Manchester City swooped to sign him for a reported £45m in the summer of 2022.
Jack Clarke, similarly, joined the club as a youngster in 2009 and worked his way up to the senior side under Marcelo Bielsa, scoring two goals in 22 league games in the 2018/19 campaign.
After just one season with the first-team, Clarke was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £10m. In the present day, the winger currently plays for Ipswich Town in the Premier League, after joining them from Sunderland for a reported £20m in the summer.
Most recently, Leeds sold academy graduate Archie Gray to Spurs in the summer transfer window for a reported fee of £30m, after he won the EFL Young Player of the Season last term.
The England U21 international spent his entire youth career at Thorp Arch and made 52 first-team appearances in the 2023/24 campaign under Farke, which convinced Tottenham to swoop to sign him for a huge fee.
Leeds did, however, once miss out on the chance to bring a fantastic prospect to their academy set-up, and he went on to be worth as much as the fee Spurs paid for Gray.
Leeds United had Ben Godfrey on trial
Jack Clarke recently revealed that Ben Godfrey, who he described as a “top player”, came on trial at Thorp Arch but it did not work out for him, whilst he added that they had played football together as kids living in York.
The English prospect was released by Middlesbrough in 2012 and the 14-year-old went on numerous trials in an attempt to find a new academy to play for, including spells with the Whites, Barnsley, and Sheffield United across Yorkshire.
Speaking to Sky Sports in 2022, Godfrey confirmed that Leeds did not offer him a contract after his time on trial at the club, but that his rejection did motivate him to kick on elsewhere.
He said: “The moment that stands out massively is after that Leeds United trial. The coach told me they were not going to offer me anything but to go and prove him wrong. That stuck with me. I was desperate then. I could not wait to go and prove them wrong.”
The young gem eventually signed for York City and made his way to Premier League side Norwich City in the January transfer window in 2016 for a fee of just £150k, which is when his career really kicked off.
Ben Godfrey’s soaring market value
After time in the U21 team at Carrow Road and a season on loan with Shrewsbury in League One, Godfrey eventually emerged as a regular fixture in the first-team for Norwich under Farke in the 2018/19 campaign.
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The head of football operations at York, Richard Cresswell, revealed that coach Jonathan Greening tipped the English brute to make it at the ‘highest level’ as a centre-back because he could see ‘similarities’ to former Leeds and Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand.
However, it was not until Farke decided to change his position from a defensive midfield role to centre-back in the 2018/19 season that Godfrey started to live up to that hype.
|
2018/19 Championship |
Ben Godfrey |
|---|---|
|
Appearances |
31 |
|
Goals |
4 |
|
Pass accuracy |
89% |
|
Progressive passes per 90 |
3.35 |
|
Progressive carries per 90 |
1.17 |
|
Ground duel success rate |
63% |
As you can see in the table above, the Norwich star thrived as a centre-back to help his team to win the league title, showcasing his defensive strength, eye for a goal, and his progressive play in possession.
He then made 30 Premier League appearances for the Canaries in the 2019/20 campaign, which attracted interest from teams in the top-flight. Everton then swooped to sign him from Carrow Road for a reported fee of £30m in the summer of 2020 to bolster Carlo Ancelotti’s defence.
This means that Leeds ended up missing out on a £30m-rated star in the making because they did not see his top-class potential during his trial in 2012.
They could have had their next version of Ferdinand, who was also sold by Leeds for £30m to Manchester United in 2002, if they had brought him in to develop at Thorp Arch, as a centre-back with the potential to earn the club a gigantic pay day.
Godfrey emerged as a first-team star in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons for Norwich and those were Bielsa’s two years with the Whites at Championship level, which suggests that he could have thrived under the Argentine boss’ coaching had he joined the academy as a youngster.
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The 26-year-old currently plays for Atalanta, whom he joined from Everton in the summer, and has featured twice in the Champions League so far this season, whilst Leeds may rue that they did not take up their chance to bring him in.
Whilst he may not go on to enjoy the career that Ferdinand had, with six Premier League titles for the Red Devils, Godfrey has already won a Championship title, played in the top-flight for Norwich and Everton, been capped by England, and now played in Europe’s premier competition for his current club, which speaks to how well he has done since failing his trial.
