Former midfielder and boyhood Sunderland fan Grant Leadbitter was born on this day in 1986.
We all love a local boy in the team, and from a personal point of view there was the added bonus that Grant came from the same place as my mam, Fence Houses. He also played alongside a mate’s son in our youth set-up, winning England Schoolboy caps and scoring against Brazil for the England U-19s along the way, and was clearly manager Mick McCarthy’s type of player – he did exactly what it said on the tin. McCarthy duly gave 17-year-old Grant his debut in a mad 4-2 home defeat to Huddersfield in the League Cup in September 2003, as a second half replacement for John Oster, but it would be a while before there was a regular first-team place. A solitary appearance the following season prompted a brief loan spell at Rotherham, where he scored his first senior goal, and then it was chocks away on his Sunderland career. 2005-6 wasn’t the most auspicious of seasons, as Mick Mac’s newly-promoted side ended up bottom of the Prem, with Grant having played a dozen games – thirteen if you count that Fulham game that was abandoned in an April blizzard, with the replayed fixture bringing us the season’s solitary home win. The summer of 2006 signalled the end of his contract, and when a new one was eventually signed, Grant revealed what we all knew – that he only ever wanted to play for the team he’d grown up supporting.
With Roy Keane eventually replacing McCarthy at the helm, Grant played in all but two league games in 2006-7, almost half of his appearances coming from the bench, as we stormed our way back to the top flight. His first goal was the winner against Sheff Wed in the September, and he contributed a further six. Back in the top flight, there were 31 appearances and a couple of goals, as well as three England U21 appearances. In September 2007 he opened the scoring at Boro, saw former SAFC players Julio and Stewart Downing put Boro ahead for Liam Miller to equalise very late on. However, the most memorable moment of the game was local boys Leadbitter and Cattermole squaring up in the 63rd and being lucky to stay on the pitch. He repeated his goal tally in 2008-9 in 28 games, with the most memorable of those being a trademark thunderbolt against Arsenal in October 2008 within two minutes of replacing Dwight Yorke with only six minutes remaining. This was “celebrated” by his running to the spot where the ashes of his dad Brian, who’d passed away a few weeks previously, were buried, and remains one of the most moving moments the SoL has witnessed. Typically, we let Fabregas (the smallest player on the pitch) head in an even later equaliser.
In the February, Roy Keane left the club and moved to Ipswich, with replacement Steve Bruce (from Wallsend, apparently) clearly not fancying Grant and allowing him to leave early in 2009-10. Keano clearly did fancy Grant, and paid £2.6 million to take him, and Carlos Edwards, to Ipswich – where he became captain and scored 14 goals in 126 games over the following three seasons in the Championship. With Keane having departed and his contract having expired, Grant was ticed to Teesside in May 2012 by a certain Tony Mowbray, where he scored on his debut in a friendly. Player of the Season in that first campaign, Grant made 244 appearances over the next six and a half seasons, contributing 32 goals. Six of the seven campaigns were in the Championship, and 2016-17 the solitary Premier League season. With only a couple of games to his name in 2018-19, it was clear his time on Teesside was up, so he did the sensible thing and dropped a division to come home.
His second coming in early 2019 was regarded by many as the final piece of the jigsaw – the calm experience to guide the team through the second half of the season and out of League One. Much was made of the “Cattermole incident” over a decade earlier, which both players laughed off as derby day exuberance from players who supported the teams they played for. It certainly didn’t affect their playing together effectively as we made Wembley twice – but to no avail, despite Grant’s nineteen appearances. The following season, with Grant as captain, brought a further twenty before it was curtailed – however, a month before the last game, he was allowed time away from the club, and football, as he dealt with serious personal issues.
Messages of support were displayed at Boro’s Riverside as well as at SAFC games, showing the high regard he is held in by fans of his other clubs. He was back and fully functioning for 2020-21, playing 42 games and nabbing seven goals in front of a total of 14,116 people, as fans were allowed into those two play-off games against Lincoln. As he walked off the SoL pitch after that fateful second leg, it must have been in his mind that it would be the last time he’d do so. Only he will know if that is true, and that his final game would end in disappointment. However, Grant did get to parade the EFL Trophy around an empty Wembley and thus added his winner’s medal to his other honours – Championship winner with us in 2007, Player of the Season at Boro in 2013, Championship runner-up in 2016 at Boro, Championship PFA Team of the Year 2014-15, and EFL Trophy runner up 2019.
A canny career for a canny Lad. Grant Leadbitter, 580 games and 65 goals of which 210 games and 18 goals were for the club he supports. Thanks for the memories Grant, and good luck on your coaching path at Middlesbrough.
