A former Leeds star detailed the eye-watering contract he signed as a teenager
Aaron Lennon began his career at Leeds
Aaron Lennon has previously revealed he pocketed £100,000 for every five matches he featured in for Leeds United due to his staggering contract terms.
The ex-footballer progressed through the youth system at his beloved club and made his first-team bow in 2003 aged just 16. But it was two years before he stepped onto the pitch as a senior player that Lennon penned his mouth-watering agreement at Leeds.
During his emergence at Elland Road, the Yorkshire outfit were experiencing catastrophic financial difficulties which forced them to offload star assets including Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate, Robbie Keane and Harry Kewell in their closing seasons in the Premier League.
Lennon went on to join Tottenham
At merely 14 years old, Lennon had put pen to paper on a deal featuring enormous appearance bonuses and substantial rewards that further damaged Leeds’ finances simply for fielding him. The former England winger disclosed that he was earning £10,000 per outing, whilst collecting a whopping £100,000 for every five matches once he turned professional.
The 38-year-old unveiled the remarkable contract specifics during his guest spot on Rio Ferdinand’s Five podcast. He said: “Mine was done quite ruthlessly. Ken Bates came in and to be fair to him, I didn’t understand at the time but my contract was good.
“It was £5,000 a week, as soon as [I] turned pro, and £10,000 an appearance. The incentives were crazy. It was like every time I played five games, I would get £100k. At that time I signed, I was 14. So they are thinking ‘he isn’t going to play’, there was no money in it unless you played. But then I started breaking in.
Just two years after his debut for Leeds, he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £1million
“My contract was silly looking back. It was crazy numbers and they were thinking ‘he won’t play’. But then I started playing. I was on the bench and they couldn’t put me on because I was going to hit one of those appearances.”
Despite making his breakthrough, Lennon managed only 14 outings in his maiden campaign. Yet the mounting pressure from team-mates and supporters eventually forced manager Peter Reid to bring him back into the fold, Lennon revealed.
“I remember Gary Kelly going mad and saying our best player is on the bench now, our most in-form winger is on the bench,” he recalled. “I was just sat there and Leeds fans were singing my name. But eventually he [Reid] put me on because it got that bad with the fans singing my name they had to put me on.”
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Despite being hailed as one of England’s brightest prospects, his stint at Elland Road came to an end in 2005 when the club offloaded him to Tottenham Hotspur for £1million. Lennon revealed that chairman Ken Bates, the former Chelsea owner, delivered the news with simple bluntness.
He added: “I remember at the end of the season Ken Bates told me ‘you are done at this club’. Because of the money. “It wasn’t even in a nice way. And I was like ‘this is my hometown’. “I was upset and I remember going away and got the call saying they have accepted a bid, you are going Tottenham.”
The former winger then spent the next ten years of his career at Spurs, clinching the League Cup in 2008, the only silverware of his career. After spells at Everton, Burnley and Kayserispor post his Tottenham departure in 2015, Lennon hung up his boots in 2022. He has since returned to his roots, taking up a role as an academy coach for Leeds’ under-18s.