285: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Leeds United, Merlin’s Premier League 98 Official Sticker Collection

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Without meaning to sound like Michael Owen goals are important in football. The likes of Matt Le Tissier and Tony Yeboah specialised in sensational strikes that have lived long in the memory but, ultimately, their 35-yard screamers were worth exactly the same as the tap-ins from half a yard out. With this in mind some of the great goalscorers looked to embellish their finishes with a signature celebration. The Premier League’s all-time top scorer, Alan Shearer, signed all 260 of his top-flight goals off by wheeling away with one arm aloft. Boring but effective – a bit like the man himself. However, others were more creative and influential. Fabrizio Ravanelli’s shirt over the head added gloss to a Middlesbrough campaign that ultimately ended in relegation and convinced several out of shape lads that the world wanted to see their midriffs. The next season another talented striker arrived in the North of England with a knack for both finding the net and celebrating in style.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink joined Leeds United from Boavista in the summer of 1997 for £2m on the back of a season that had seen him score 24 goals in 38 appearances. Despite only registering five goals before Christmas he ended the season with 22 in all competitions to help Leeds to a fifth place finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup. He added 20 more in the 1998/99 season to help his side to fourth in the Premier League and shared the Golden Boot with Owen and treble winning Manchester United’s Dwight Yorke. During his time in Yorkshire Hasselbaink regularly signed his goals off with an acrobatic cartwheel/frontflip followed by a fist pump. Like the eye-catching skill moves that littered playground football in the late 1990s, a snazzy celebration was always a good way to round off a toe punt from three yards and several pairs of grey trousers were ruined as the less athletic of us attempted to emulate the Dutch striker’s gymnastic routine.

Hasselbaink left Leeds after two seasons as David O’Leary failed to offer an attractive enough contract to retain his services and he headed to Atletico Madrid for £10m. O’Leary quipped to the press that “what he is looking for I don’t think any club in the country could afford” but, after just one season (and 33 goals in 44 games) in Spain, Chelsea stumped up £15m to bring Hasselbaink back to the Premier League. He scored on his debut, a 2-0 Charity Shield win over Manchester United, and once again collected the Golden Boot after a campaign which saw him net 23 goals in 35 appearances including four in one game against a hapless Coventry City side. He replicated his efforts in the 2001/02 season but missed out on another top scorer’s award by a solitary goal to an imperious Thierry Henry. Nevertheless, he formed an impressive strike partnership with Eidur Gudjohnsen and the pair helped the Blues to an FA Cup final where they were pipped to the prize by Arsenal. Despite Claudio Ranieri’s notorious squad rotation system in the 2002/03 season he still managed an impressive 15 goals in all competitions and, in the 2003/04 season, contributed 17 goals as Chelsea finished runners-up to Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.

The summer of 2004 brought huge changes to Chelsea with the arrival of Jose Mourinho and Hasselbaink moved on a free to Middlesbrough. The striker boldly claimed that Boro could push for Champions League qualification based on their summer transfer business and, alongside Bolo Zenden, Mark Viduka and Michael Reiziger, Hasselbaink helped them to a seventh place finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup netting 16 goals in all competitions. He was instrumental in Boro’s march to the UEFA Cup final the following season where they were defeated by Sevilla. This proved to be his last game for the club as incoming manager Gareth Southgate saw him as surplus to requirements and he moved, once again on a free transfer, to Charlton Athletic. Hasselbaink only managed four goals for the Addicks who, despite the managerial nous of Iain Dowie, Les Reed and Alan Pardew, were relegated from the Premier League. He moved on to Championship side Cardiff City and helped them to an FA Cup final against Portsmouth in 2008 before he hung up his boots after failing to agree a contract extension in South Wales.

Hasselbaink moved seamlessly into coaching and took up his first managerial post with Royal Antwerp in 2013. He decided against renewing his contract with the Belgian club and took over at League Two side Burton Albion in November 2014. He led them to the title and promotion to the English third tier for the first time in the Brewers’ history. In December 2015 Hasselbaink’s side sat top of League One which attracted the attention of Championship big guns Queens Park Rangers. He took a Hoops’ side lacking confidence, and recently sold top scorer Charlie Austin, to twelfth in the table but a slump in form saw him sacked in November 2016. He took the reins at Northampton Town in September 2017 but, despite back-to-back wins in his first two games in charge, he was dismissed with the Cobblers headed for relegation from League One in April 2018.

Upon his appointment at QPR a Talksport interview asked Hasselbaink if he felt any additional responsibility as one of the few black managers in English football. He was quick to dismiss the suggestion and highlighted, rightly, that he had been offered the job based on his achievements at Burton. However, shortly after the interview, Port Vale revealed that they had rejected Hasselbaink’s application for their vacant managerial post out of fear that racist elements of their support would abuse him. It is undeniable that black and minority ethnic people are woefully underrepresented in managerial and boardroom posts in English football and highly qualified candidates such as Hasselbaink and Sol Campbell have been overlooked for a range of questionable reasons. Sadly this problem, despite attempts to place the blame purely at the feet of the beautiful game, is deeply entrenched in many sectors and workplaces. Let’s hope that once it is properly addressed the likes of Hasselbaink, the Premier League’s fourteenth highest goalscorer of all time, can be rewarded for their impressive qualifications. That might be worth a cartwheel or two.