Born on this day is former SAFC full back DeAndre Yedlin. We signed the American on loan from Tottenham in the 15/16 Premier League campaign that saw us stay up whilst Newcastle were relegated, but after that season Yedlin joined the Mags in the Championship.
Yedlin started his career in America, playing for Seattle Sounders and became the player to watch in the MLS. He grabbed the Young Player of The Year award in the MLS twice whilst also becoming a two time 'MLS All Star', which is a thing apparently.
After impressing in America he earned a move to England in the Premier League with Tottenham. He wasn’t going to get any game time with the London club so they loaned him out to us as we prepared for another season fighting relegation.
With his help we managed to stay up in the 2015/16 season, Yedlin played 25 times for us that season. He showed us all his incredible speed as he looked like he had been shot out of a cannon bombing up and down the line. He looked like a decent young player and one I’m sure most of us were disappointed with when we didn’t keep him on permanently.
After his loan with us he returned to a Spurs side that was rich in right back talent, at that time they had Kieran Trippier and Kyle Walker and unfortunately for Deandre he just wasn’t as good as them. So the London club decided to sell him and he came back to the North East but he went to the Mags this time, in the Championship.
He spent a few years with the Mags, helping them get out of the championship before gradually becoming a squad player. He left Newcastle on a free to go to Turkey with Galatasaray but he was only there for a year before he returned back to America as he joined David Beckham’s newly founded Inter Miami in the MLS. He still plays there now and he will soon be teammates with Lionel Messi.
Throughout his career the main thing people remember about him was his blistering pace, other than that there wasn’t too much to be excited about. He was better going forward than he was going backwards and at times it left his team weak at the back.
