Between 2000 and 2004, Mark Viduka terrorised opposition defences in the famous white shirt of Leeds United.
During the four years the Australian striker spent with us, he scored 72 goals and provided 28 assists in 166 appearances for Leeds. (LUFCHistory)
Viduka is one of the names that instantly springs to mind when you cast your thoughts back to the success United enjoyed in the 2000s, both in the Premier League and in Europe.
However, the 49ers looked to have signed a striker who is having a similar impact for Daniel Farke as Viduka did for David O’Leary all those years ago.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin just behind Mark Viduka for Leeds United scoring record
Looking back now, signing Viduka for £6million was a bargain considering the impact he had for the Whites and the cult hero status he’d go on to achieve at Elland Road, even if things did turn sour in the end as we were relegated in Viduka’s last season at Leeds.
However, with United now back in the Premier League, the 49ers have secured an even bigger bargain when considering they signed Dominic Calvert-Lewin on a free.
Whilst the Englishman is certainly not a better player than Viduka, he’s having a similar impact for Leeds in the Premier League, and you’d imagine if Calvert-Lewin can keep this going for another couple of seasons, he too will earn cult-hero status at Elland Road.
After his goal against Manchester United over the weekend, Opta’s Jonny Cooper posted a remarkable stat about Calvert-Lewin.
That was his 20th goal for Leeds in just 48 appearances, which is the quickest a player has scored 20 goals for us whilst we’ve been a Premier League outfit, since Viduka scored 20 in 43 games back in 2000-01.
Whilst the expectation of Viduka was to fire us into Europe and have us competing at the top end of the Premier League, Calvert-Lewin’s main aim was to help us avoid the drop as a newly promoted side.
However, so far at Elland Road, Calvert-Lewin’s goal record has proved that he is more than capable of leading the line for us in Europe. Now it’s just a case of surrounding the target man with as much quality as possible to make this a reality in the future.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be looking to overtake Mark Viduka at Leeds
It’s no surprise that Viduka is our all-time leading goalscorer in the Premier League.
During his spell at the club, the Australian found the back of the net 59 times for us in the Premier League.
So far, Calvert-Lewin is on 18 for us in the Premier League, and surely he will have one eye on this record.
At 29 years old, he still has a few good years left in him, you would imagine, and if he can continue to be as prolific for us as he has been, there’s every chance he could break Viduka’s record if he stays at the club for the next handful of years.
What a turnaround this would be if it ended up coming to fruition.
I think we were all sceptical when we signed Calvert-Lewin as our main man up top, but all of those doubts have been put to bed emphatically.
And now, Calvert-Lewin becoming our all-time record goal scorer in the Premier League isn’t something you’d put past Farke’s talisman whatsoever.
