Many players have come and gone through the doors at Elland Road over the years, each playing their own small part in the history of the club.
The years of 2012 to 2015 will hardly be looked back on fondly by Leeds fans as the Whites secured a string of consecutive bottom half finishes in the Championship.
The west Yorkshire side neither challenged for promotion nor were really in danger of dropping down to League One as they ended up 13th in 2012/13 before back-to-back 15th place finishes in the following two seasons.
With Marcelo Bielsa’s men still hoping that the current season can be completed so they can return to the Premier League, the first half of the 2010s will be remembered more for a relative stability in the league rather than anything else.
But this is the time that Rodolph Austin spent at the club.
The move to Leeds
Austin was handed the number eight shirt when he arrived at Elland Road in the summer of 2012 from Norwegian side SK Brann.
The Jamaican international was supposed to join Stoke four years previously after the Potters spotted Austin playing for Portmore United in his home country but work permit issues meant he was forced to go to Norway instead.
In the end, the move to Brann suited Leeds as there, Austin met former Whites star Eirik Bakke who convinced him to go to Yorkshire in a deal worth a reported £300,000.
Austin signed on the same day as Jamie Ashdown, Andy Gray and Luke Varney as Neil Warnock added depth to his squad ahead of the 2012/13 campaign.
Time in Yorkshire
During his time at Elland Road, Austin made 101 appearances in the famous white shirt as Leeds continued to battle for relevance in the Championship.
The Jamaican starred as Leeds went on two cup runs during his first season at the club, beating Premier League sides Everton and Southampton on their way to the League Cup quarter-finals, with Austin scoring the second in the 2-1 defeat of the Toffees.
He also featured as Leeds knocked Spurs out of the FA Cup that season on their way to reaching the last 16 of the tournament.
Austin was named captain ahead of the 2013/14 campaign but stepped down later in the season after Leeds were knocked out of the FA Cup by League Two Rochdale.
The following season he switched his shirt number to four and won the club’s goal of the season competition for a dipping effort against Watford in what proved to be a 3-2 defeat.
Leeds opted against renewing Austin’s contract, leaving the soon-to-be 30-year-old to find a new club.
Post-Leeds career
Austin reached an agreement to stay in Yorkshire as he was to join Sheffield Wednesday on a three-year deal but the midfielder was denied a work permit, supposedly because of Jamaica’s lowly standing in the FIFA world rankings.
Instead, he left for Denmark where he signed with Brondby IF. His first season at the club saw them fight back from a slow start to finish fourth and earn a place in the Europa League first qualifying round the following season.
Brondby made it all the way to the playoff round of the tournament after eliminating Icelandic side Valur 10-1 on aggregate in the first round, squeezing past Hibernian of Scotland in a penalty shootout in the second and recording a 3-2 aggregate defeat of Hertha Berlin in the third.
The Danes could not reach the group stages, however, as they were knocked out by Greek side Panathinaikos.
There was a similar heartbreak for Austin and his teammates on the domestic front as they finished second in the table behind FC Copenhagen before also losing the Danish Cup final to their rivals.
At the end of the season, Austin dropped down to the second tier of Danish football to join Esbjerg fB and helped guide his new team to promotion to the Superliga via the playoffs.
In their first season back in the top division, Esbjerg finished an incredible third in the table, four points ahead of Austin’s old team Brondby and enough to earn a place in this season’s Europa League second qualifying round.
But their spell in Europe was short-lived as they were eliminated at the first hurdle by Belarussian side Shakhtyor Soligorsk.
With just two games still to play in the first round of the Danish league this season, Austin’s side sit second from bottom with just 17 points in 24 matches and are guaranteed a spot in the relegation round if the current campaign is played out to its end.
Austin turns 35 this summer but has yet to make any official announcement on where his future lies.
