Bizarre Reddit thread reveals Leeds United 's legacy has infiltrated Korean language

A weird and wonderful post on online chat platform Reddit explains how the team's former successes have been enshrined in a Korean phrase. Yes, you read that right.

Unbeknownst to fans, the catchphrase 'Leeds days' has been used in South Korea for the past 20 years, referring to something or someone back in its prime. To be honest, we're not sure if this is a compliment or an insult.

According to the post, "even 70-year-old grannies" use the expression, whether they know who the club are or not.

After hearing the expression being bandied about for years without understanding its etymology, the poster decided to look up what the phrase meant.

Writing on Reddit, he said: "I'm Korean-American, and for around the past 2 decades or so, there's been this expression called "?? ??," which means "during my prime," "golden age," almost always used by women who use it as "during the height of my beauty," etc.

"Even 50 y.o.'s, hell even 70 y.o. grannies will sometimes use this expression fairly regularly.

"It's pronounced 'ri-jeuh' and I knew how to use it obviously, but never knew [what] 'ri-jeuh' actually meant.

"Anyway, hearing it for the 500th time in my life, I just got curious enough to Korean Wikipedia it out of the blue just last week just to at least know the etymology.

"It's referring to Leeds (Ri-Jeuh) United, and the funny thing is I'm fairly certain damn near 100% of Korean women don't even know Leeds United is a football club at all, or that there's a city called Leeds at all."

The entry on the Wikipedia page explains how the term relates to hey days in the world of football, although is used in Korea to describe, for example, a celebrity back at their height of stardom. You can see it for yourself here.

The Reddit user added: "Now that I know the context, every Korean girl using this expression to talk about when they were hot especially after they've gained a bit of weight just sounds like they were an ambitious talent who once played for Leeds United but are just going through a rough patch in life, and I can't stop cracking up now, and they're completely clueless."