MOGAMAD ALLIE: SA’s Albert Johanneson was an FA Cup trailblazer

With Manchester City having placed the FA Cup safely in their trophy cabinet for a seventh time after their 2-1 win over Manchester United on Saturday it’s worth recalling the travails of the late Albert Johanneson.

The name of the Germiston-born Johanneson will forever remain etched in the history of the competition as the first black footballer to play in the final of the world’s most famous club competition when he ran onto the field for Leeds United against Liverpool on May 1 1965.

Unfortunately for the man known affectionately as “Black Flash” to the adoring Leeds fans, they lost 2-1 after extra time and Johanneson didn’t have a particularly good game in front of more than 100,000 fans that included Queen Elizabeth II at Wembley Stadium. Had substitutions been allowed at the time, he would surely have been replaced. 

The winger, who was recommended to Leeds as a 20-year-old by local schoolteacher Barney Gaffney who was impressed by Johanneson while playing amateur football, paved the way for many other black players to follow in his footsteps in the English top flight. 

Of course, he blazed a trail for the great Lucas Radebe, who went on to captain Leeds in the 1998-99 season, and the late Phil “Chippa” Masinga, who followed in his footsteps when they joined the Yorkshire club in 1994. 

Johanneson arrived on a three-month trial at Leeds in January 1961, normally the coldest time of the year in England, but he stuck it out and made a big enough impression to become the first signing of newly appointed player/manager Don Revie.

Key member

The former England international would become Leeds’ greatest manager. During his 13-year spell Revie led the club to two league titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, the predecessor to the Uefa Cup that evolved into the Europa League in 2009.

Johanneson was a key member of Revie’s rebuilding project that included club legends such as Billy Bremner and England international Jack Charlton. His pace, skill and creativity made the South African an important member of the team that won promotion to the top flight as second division champions in 1964.

During that season Johanneson only missed five games and was the club’s joint leading goal scorer with Don Weston with 13 league goals, equalling his return of his first full season with the club in 1962-63. At this time the South African established himself firmly as a fan favourite.

In their first season back in the First Division after a four-year absence, Leeds surprised everyone as they were involved in a neck-and-neck race for the title, pipped only on goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded), which was the tiebreaker at the time, by Manchester United as both teams finished level on 61 points. Black Flash netted nine times in the league that season. 

But Johanneson, who thought he had escaped the racism that was institutionalised through apartheid in SA, was subjected to the scourge in England too.   

Bad name

“At home they loved him, away from home he found it very difficult with the opposition and particularly the supporters,” former Leeds left-back Willie Bell told the BBC before his death on March 21. 

“He would tell me, ‘The right back is calling me a bad name.’ And I would tell him it’s only because he can’t handle you and wants to put you off. Take him to the cleaners son, and that’s often what he did.” 

Though no longer a regular in Revie’s team as two brilliant young talents, Eddie Gray and Peter Lorimer, graduated from the club’s academy, Johanneson still had the ability to break down any defence. He showcased his skills in European competitions and he remains the only Leeds player to have netted two hat-tricks on that stage. The first came in a 5-1 win over DWS Amsterdam in October 1966 and the second in the 7-0 thrashing of Spora Luxembourg in the next season’s competition.

He scored 48 goals in 172 appearances during a nine-year stay with Leeds. After leaving Elland Road Johanneson also netted three times in 26 appearances for York City whom he helped win promotion to the third division in 1971.

Johanneson returned to SA in 1972 to help Glenville win their maiden Federation Professional League title. The Cape Town side, transformed by the former Leeds attacker’s experience, went through the season unbeaten.

Albert Louis Johanneson died on September 28 1995 aged 55 due to heart failure. He was arguably the first player to be subjected to orchestrated racism from the terraces of football stadiums as well as being subjected to abuse from opponents in England. Sadly, more than 50 years later, racist abuse of black players continues in Europe.