Where are they now? Leeds United’s XI from their last FA Cup quarter-final in 2003 | OneFootball

Leeds United are one game away from an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley – a position that they’ve not found themselves in for almost a quarter of a century.

Their clash away to relegation rivals West Ham United is their first in the FA Cup quarter-finals since way back in 2003 – a 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United.

Twenty-three years on from that painful defeat to Neil Warnock’s Blades, we’ve checked in on every player that featured for Leeds that day.

GK: Paul Robinson

An academy graduate who once won an FA Youth Cup, this was Robinson’s proper breakthrough season, in which he was named the club’s Player of the Year. Like several others on this teamsheet, Robinson left Leeds after relegation the following year.

He went on to become England’s No.1 in the mid-noughties and clocked up hundreds more Premier League appearances for Tottenham and Blackburn.

He eventually hung up his gloves following a stint on the periphery at Burnley and has taken up the odd bit of punditry since.

RB: Danny Mills

After falling out of favour, Mills spent Leeds’ relegation season out on loan at Middlesbrough, where he won the League Cup.

Following the drop, the former England international signed for Manchester City on a free transfer. He spent five years on their books, but his career fizzled out amid injuries and a series of forgettable loans away. Nowadays, he’s a bit of a rent-a-quote in the media.

His son George is a British 1500 metres title winner, while younger sibling Stanley developed his skills in the Leeds academy and now plays for Championship side Oxford United.

CB: Teddy Lucic

After a so-so season-long loan, Leeds opted against signing Lucic. He instead went to Bayer Leverkusen, but struggled to make it beyond the fringes at the Bundesliga outfit and saw out his career at a variety of clubs back in Sweden.

He retired in 2010 but extensive googling has drawn up blanks as to what he’s doing now. Keeping a low profile and presumably enjoying the fruits of those sweet Peter Ridsdale wages.

CB: Raul Bravo

Another loan that only die-hards are likely to remember. Raul Bravo made just five Premier League appearances in his half-season away from Real Madrid.

The defender actually made 53 appearances for Los Blancos the following season, but that was a year in which they finished a distant fourth and ended up trophyless. Sounds about right.

He remained a squad player at the Bernabeu until 2007 and later represented Olympiacos, Numancia, Rayo Vallecano, Beerschot, Cordoba and Veria (Greece, apparently) in a respectable but not especially sexy career path.

Bravo made some shock headlines in 2019 when he was arrested on charges of belonging to a criminal organisation involved in corruption and money laundering. One outlet even accused him of hiring a contract killer to take out a former Olympiacos team-mate.

We hasten to add that he vehemently denied the charges and was never found guilty.

“It’s a crazy story, it’s nonsense,” Bravo told reporters at the time. Still, quite the gear shift from the usual (“he makes the odd appearance on talkSPORT”) where-are-they-now fare.

CB: Lucas Radebe

The Chief stayed at his beloved Leeds until after relegation, but injuries severely reduced his minutes in the latter years.

He retired in 2005 after a memorable Elland Road testimonial that featured the likes of Gary McAllister, Gordon Strachan, Gary Speed and Tony Yeboah.

Radebe settled back home in South Africa, but he remains a Leeds legend and often jets back for appearances. He was officially named a club ambassador last year.

LB: Ian Harte (James Milner, ’81)

Former Republic of Ireland stalwart Harte continued playing for over a decade following his departure from Elland Road in 2004, with Levante, Carlisle, Reading and Bournemouth the stops along the way.

Nowadays he works as an agent, with Leeds academy graduate Jack Clarke among his clients.

God knows what became of the substitute, though.

CM: Seth Johnson

The name ‘Seth Johnson’ has become a byword for the hubristic overspending of the Ridsdale era.

A little unfairly, perhaps. It wasn’t his fault that he was offered outrageous wages and suffered terrible luck with injuries.

The midfielder went back to Derby and played his final game in their Wembley play-off final victory in 2007, but knee issues took their toll, and he retired at the age of just 28.

Johnson’s recent appearance on Undr The Cosh is worth a watch.

CM: Paul Okon (Nick Barmby, ’81)

A relatively rare appearance for the Australian in his inauspicious season at Leeds. He continued playing until 2007, seeing out his playing days down under with A-League outfit Newcastle Jets.

He later went into coaching and spent a couple of years in charge of Central Coast Mariners. Look out for him at the upcoming World Cup; he’s currently serving as an assistant to Socceroos head coach Tony Popovic.

Barmby left Leeds following relegation in 2004 and spent the final eight years of his career at hometown club Hull City. He became a lesser-spotted player-coach in the 2011-12 season, eventually hanging up his boots to become a full-time manager.

The former England international was sacked after half a season in charge following a falling out with the Hull board, and – save for a couple of months as an assistant at Scunthorpe – hasn’t been spotted in a dugout since.

CAM: Harry Kewell (Eirik Bakke, ’45)

Kewell was unsurprisingly absent from Leeds’ 100th birthday celebrations in 2019, despite a number of his former team-mates attending.

While the Australian was undoubtedly one of the best and most memorable players of that era, producing the best football of his career as a youngster at Leeds, he burned his bridges with the fanbase following the circumstances of his move to Liverpool, and – more importantly – his later, controversial decision to represent Galatasaray.

He retired in 2014 and has since coached clubs including Crawley, Notts County and Barnet. He’s currently managing Vietnamese outfit Hanoi FC.

Bakke enjoys a much better standing among Leeds supporters to this day. He continued to play for the club in the Championship before seeing out his career back home in Norway. He’s also a coach, and is currently free after departing Asane.

ST: Alan Smith

Of all Leeds’ post-relegation departures in 2004, Smith’s to old enemy Manchester United was the most controversial, particularly for such a dyed-in-the-wool Leeds lad.

Smith probably never quite replicated the best of his early breakthrough years at Leeds. Injuries didn’t help, nor did Sir Alex Ferguson’s eyebrow-raising experiment to mould him into Roy Keane’s successor at the heart of the Red Devils’ midfield.

He later played a starring role in Newcastle United’s 100-point promotion from the Championship in 2010 and saw out his career with stints at MK Dons and Notts County.

Nowadays, he’s living out in Orlando, Florida and working in a soccer academy coaching youngsters.

ST: Mark Viduka

“I love Leeds, I love the place, I love the club,” Viduka reflected on his departure from Elland Road, in a recent interview in The Guardian published 25 years on from his famous four-goal haul against Liverpool.

“If everything was OK, I would have stayed there. But I didn’t want to be playing second division football, and they couldn’t afford for me to stay.”

He retired five years after leaving Leeds, staying up north with spells at Middlesbrough and Newcastle United.

Viduka seems to be enjoying the good life since retiring, running a coffee shop in Zagreb.