"We loved him": Former Sheffield Wednesday man pays emotional tribute to football legend Norman Hunter

Hunter, a legend of 726 appearances at Wednesday’s Yorkshire rivals Leeds United, was a member of the 1966 World Cup-winning squad and won the inaugural Player’s Player of the Year award in 1970. He died from the coronavirus.

Newsome won the First Division title with Leeds in 1992 and got to know Hunter well through his media and matchday activities at Elland Road.

Paying tribute, Newsome said: “The word legend gets sprayed around and overused. When I’m working on matchdays and people like me get introduced as a ‘Leeds legend’, I always say ‘no, we’re ex-players, the word legend is used for special people’. And that’s someone like Norman.

“He was predominately left-footed but I’ve been watching clips on the news of him today and there’s footage of him scoring a thunderbolt from about 35 yards with his right.

“All those appearances for Leeds, part of the World Cup-winning squad, only kept out of that England side by Sir Bobby Moore and his teammate Jack Charlton.

“He was a legend of the football club, a legend in terms of his entire career and quite possibly one of the nicest people you will ever have wished to meet.

“He was such a humble guy. There were times when the matchday sponsors would turn up at Elland Road and probably 35 of them were mad Leeds United fans.

“Four or five people weren’t followers of the club and some of them wouldn’t have a clue who he was. But he was fine with that, he’d talk to them about other things.

“When you saw him at the end of the day, he wouldn’t just shake your hand, he’d give you a hug, each and every one of the lads.

“We loved him, I’d go as far as to say that. We all loved him as a man.”