My Leeds United - 'We've dreamt for many a year, this is not the time to stop'

Tomi Oladipo is a reporter and news anchor now based in Berlin, Germany after more than a decade reporting across Africa.

I grew up in different cities and countries, away from the city of my birth.

The only way to reconnect with this city I hardly knew was through its football team.

The first match I followed live was Leeds' goalless draw away to Rushden and Diamonds. I was careful to remember each player's name from the radio match commentary. Hopkin, Bowyer, Hasselbaink, Woodgate, Haaland and soon I felt I knew everything there was to know about the club. I professed my love to the club and they sent me a team poster the following season.

There are countless simple moments since, that are etched in my memory: Radebe in goal, Rio's header against Liverpool, Viduka's four, Champions League - including Ian Harte's freekick against Deportivo (which made me blow my cover with a shriek, after I had sneaked downstairs to watch the match when I should have been up in my room studying for my GCSEs), THAT court case, splashing the cash, Milner's debut, and relegation.

The First Division and lower leagues were not often broadcast abroad so I had to follow much of the dead years online. I received goal alerts on my phone but they did not inspire much confidence. As streaming became easier, I could watch the ups and downs from wherever in the world I was, although it became ever clearer that each season of Leeds chasing promotion was like watching an omnibus of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

When my best mate moved to Leeds from London for a few years, it was the perfect excuse for me to visit often, in pilgrim-like manner, to take in the city and gaze lovingly at the stadium at Elland Road, dreaming of glory days to come.

Then the club was linked with Marcelo Bielsa. I thought it was the most outrageous of summertime fables. I considered Bielsa a household name like Jose Antonio Camacho or Luis Van Gaal. I remembered him from the 2002 World Cup when he coached Argentina against my country Nigeria. What a rumour that turned out to be, when he turned up at Leeds. I still struggle to understand how and why he took the job.

Here we are now. I had been thinking of how to be in Leeds in May when we are declared champions of the league. Snapping back to reality, we are made aware of what is important at the moment - that the ups and downs we talk about as a club are nowhere as high up or as low down as the fragility of life itself can portray. The coronavirus has brought many scriptwriters' plotlines to life.

So I do have worries. What if the crisis goes on for too long and the league is cancelled? Or if the schedule resumes but Leeds players lose their excellent form? However, the fears are nowhere as great as my confidence that this is our year, coronavirus-permitting.

If we are fortunate enough to look back on this, I hope we remember as much as we can of a centenary season when an inimitable head coach led an underachieving club to promotion in spite of a global crisis. We've dreamt for many a year. This is not the time to stop.

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