First look at new 40ft-high Leeds United mural tribute to legend Jermaine Beckford

The colourful artwork covers the entire side wall of the Edmund House Club on Pontefract Road, East End Park, and it has already become a focal point for not just the community, but Whites fans further afield.

Club secretary Adele Kendrew told the YEP: “There has been loads and loads of interest. It looks fantastic. We’ve had people driving in just to take a picture, we have had a cycling club come to look at it, and we’ve even had parents with kids who don’t want to get up, telling them that they can go and look at the mural before school.

"We had a wedding recently and they wanted photos taken in front of it. We thought it would be good for the area and good for business. People walking through the park can even see it, all the neighbours think it’s a good thing and people just smile when they see it, the detail on it is just fantastic.”

Adele said they had to apply to the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust, which selected the popular social club to be recipient of the city’s 14th Leeds United mural. Others include larger-scale paintings of players and managers past and present on walls in Chapel Allerton, Wortley, Holbeck, The Calls, Armley, Hyde Park Corner, Kirkgate, Guiseley and of course, outside Elland Road.

Adele said they chose cult-hero Beckford for his goal that famously knocked fierce rivals Manchester United out of the FA Cup in 2010. Commissioned by the supporters’ trust, it was painted by the local artist known as the Cortisol Kid.

Adele said: “He was here through the winter months and he was doing it all day every day. He used an iPad to help him to do it. He had the picture on there and he did it in grids, doing it section by section.

"It was brilliant to watch him do it. People wondered who it was going to be, somebody thought it was going to be SpongeBob SquarePants! It was so high he needed a cherry picker but he lost two days because it broke down.”