8 former Leeds United players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024
Leeds United might be plugging away in the Championship once more, but they feel like a completely different club to the one that habitually finished midtable prior to Marcelo Bielsa’s arrival in 2018.
But it wasn’t that long ago that they were still something of a basket case, churning through players at a rate of knots under a series of questionable owners. The fact that many of those pre-Bielsa players are still turning out for obscure clubs across the globe is a reminder that those wild years weren’t so long ago.
We’ve identified eight former Leeds players we’re surprised to see are still playing in 2024.
Mirco Antenucci
With that big bushy beard and eyes that looked as though they’d seen a thing or two, Antenucci already had the grizzled image of a footballing answer to The Expandables – out for one last job – during his half-decent spell at Cellino-era Leeds.
He left eight years ago, signing for SPAL in 2016, and yet is still going at the age of 40.
The Italian striker enjoyed the best years of his career at SPAL, having fired them to promotion before hitting double figures for Serie A goals as they punched above their weight to stay up in 2017-18. He subsequently spent three years in the Italian third tier with Bari but is now back at SPAL for a second stint, the club now also in the Italian third tier after falling from grace.
Ross McCormack
Hands up – we’re stretching “still playing” with this one.
After an inauspicious end to his professional career, the former Scotland international sensationally came out of retirement last year to serve in a lesser-spotted player-director of football role at lower-league Liversedge.
He’s since left that club and has since signed for Doncaster City – not Rovers – and made one appearance for the club alongside Charlie Mulgrew and Wes Hoolahan. But that seems to have been a bit of a publicity stunt for the Willie McKay-backed newly-formed non-league outfit. It doesn’t seem at all unlikely that one match was the final note of the 38-year-old’s career, but watch this space.
Vurnon Anita
Believe it or not, but Liam Cooper isn’t the first player to sign for CSKA Sofia after being released by the club. Anita joined the Bulgarian side back in 2020 following his forgettably unsuccessful stint at Elland Road.
However, the utility man only made a couple of appearances for CSKA before returning to the Netherlands, where he spent three years with RKC Waalwijk. He’s still kicking on away from the spotlight, having helped Al-Orobah get promoted to the Saudi Pro League last season, although he was released in the summer and is currently unattached.
Anita is yet to announce his retirement and it wouldn’t surprise us if he takes one more payday in another far-flung corner of the globe.
Marcus Antonsson
Another less than prolific striker from the pre-Bielsa days, Antonsson scored just one Championship goal in 16 appearances for Leeds.
After faring a little better out on loan in League One with Blackburn Rovers, the forward returned to Sweden in 2018 and spent three years at Pontus Jansson’s beloved Malmo.
After bouncing around a few more clubs, Antonsson signed for Australian A-League side Western Sydney Wanderers last year… and now boasts Juan Mata as a team-mate.
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Tommaso Bianchi
Another unmemorable Italian from the Cellino era, Bianchi wasn’t actually part of the ‘sicknote six’ that infamously withdrew from Neil Redfearn’s squad in April 2015 – but he might as well have been.
The midfielder has spent almost the entirety of his career playing below the top tier, and in 2016 he left Leeds to join Ascoli, with whom he’d been relegated whilst out on loan.
Bianchi, 35, has spent the last eight years kicking around the lower reaches of the Italian football pyramid and is still going for Serie D side San Donato Tavarnelle. For the love of the game and all that.
Billy Sharp
Here’s one you’re probably aware of.
After an almost dreamlike little spell of banging in the goals in MLS for LA Galaxy, Sharp returned to England to sign for Hull City earlier this year.
A legend of the Football League and one of the most prolific English goalscorers of his generation, it would feel weird not to have Sharp grafting away up top for some club – preferably a Yorkshire one, better yet a South Yorkshire one – between the second and fourth tiers.
Now 38, he’s into his second spell with Doncaster Rovers – having last played in League Two literally two decades ago out on loan at Rushden & Diamonds.
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Rudolph Austin
The tough-tackling Jamaican made over a hundred Championship appearances for Leeds between 2012 and 2015, an era in which the club uncomfortably started to feel like part of the furniture in the second tier.
Austin, 39, went on to spend six more years turning out for clubs in Scandinavia before returning his boyhood club Portmere United in 2022. Last year he lifted the first and only piece of silverware of his professional career, the Jamaican Lynk Cup.
Ryan Hall
Overshadowed somewhat by his rugby league and MMA namesakes, considerably more successful in their fields, this Hall was a bit of a punt that never worked out.
After leaving Leeds in 2013, the winger failed to find a settled run of games anywhere as he tumbled down the divisions in nomadic style.
The 36-year-old is currently turning out for non-league Croydon, the 18th different club he’s represent in his career.