Mention the name of Habib Habibou to any Leeds United fan and there’s a good chance you’ll trigger painful flashbacks to a transfer they wish had never happened.
Loaned from Zulte Waregem back in January 2013, the Central Africa Republic international spent six months at Elland Road, during which he played just four times and scored zero goals.
Of those appearances, only one was a start, in a 2-1 loss at home to Huddersfield after which Neil Warnock decided it was best to keep the now 31-year-old on the bench or out of the squad altogether.
After his Leeds spell, the forward returned to Zulte Waregem and then moved around Europe, with transfers to KAA Gent, Rennes, a loan at Gaziantepspor, followed by moves to RC Lens, Qatar SC and now Maccabi Petah Tikva in Israel.
Speaking to La Nouvelle Gazette, Habibou recalled how the move to Leeds first came about.
He said: “During my career, I’ve had many loans, some because of injuries after which I needed time elsewhere to get some minutes. There was notably those famous aborted transfers to West Ham and QPR, which led me to finally end up on loan at Leeds.”
Looking back at reports at the time, there was no mention of him ever being that close to a move to QPR, who were just stated as battling the Elland Road based club for his signature.
Did he really want to go to Leeds? Seeing as they appear to have been his third choice, it doesn’t really seem like it.
Perhaps some things are just better off forgotten, and we apologise for bringing them back up.
