'I didn't want to leave Leeds – but I had no choice and demanded Chelsea transfer'

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Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink claims he never wanted to leave Leeds United before joining Chelsea via Atletico Madrid. The 53-year-old left Elland Road for Spain in 1999 but says he was denied a switch to Stamford Bridge at the time, before making the move a year later.

Hasselbaink arrived in England for £2million when Leeds snapped him up from Portuguese side Boavista in 1997. The striker well and truly hit the ground running , bagging 16 top-flight goals in his first season and claiming a share of the 1998/99 Premier League Golden Boot in the following campaign with 18 strikes.

Other clubs came calling after a contract dispute in 1999 and the Dutch international moved to Atletico Madrid for £10m. One year later he made the move to west London for a then-club record £15m, with his two former clubs Leeds and Chelsea set for battle in the Premier League on Tuesday evening.

However, Hasselbaink claims he never wanted to leave Leeds. The former striker says the new contract he was offered at Elland Road before his departure wasn't up to scratch and his club even refused to sell him to Chelsea, forcing him to demand a transfer before he eventually ended up a cult hero in the capital .

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"I didn't want to leave," Hasselbaink said on Kammy & Ben's Proper Football Podcast when asked about his 1999 Leeds exit. "I had a great time and I wanted to sign a new contract.

"I had two years left and I was in line to get a new contract. I was doing well. When I came, nobody knew me so my contract was that of an unknown player. But two years later players were getting new contracts.

"They offered me a new contract but it wasn't great. I wasn't one of [Ex-Leeds manager] David O'Leary's favourites. He took over and I think he wanted to get his own team. Chelsea came in for me but they didn't want to sell me to Chelsea.

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"I told them what the going rate was for my contract and that I wanted to sign but they said no. I said 'Okay, then I want to go.' They told me that if I wanted to go then I'd have to hand in a transfer request, but you all know the hoo-hah that comes with a transfer request.

"It didn't have to go that way. If David O'Leary didn't want me or I wasn't in his plans then he could have said that and we could have found a solution. I was well-liked by the fans and they needed a scapegoat and the scapegoat I was."

Leeds recouped £10m for Hasselbaink when he swapped the Premier League for La Liga and he didn't disappoint. In just a single season in Spain he bagged 24 league goals. This did not go unnoticed and although he says Leeds were reluctant to sell him to Chelsea, that's precisely who signed the star in May 2000. In 177 games for the club he scored 87 goals.

Discussing his move to Stamford Bridge, Hasselbaink told the club: "Because of how I left Leeds and the whole hoo-hah, for me to come back to England there was more pressure on me to straightaway hit the ground running.

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"When I was at Leeds and it was certain I was going to leave, Chelsea showed interest but Leeds didn't want to sell to an English club so it didn't happen. At that time I would have wanted to stay in England so to have that second chance to be able to come to Chelsea was magnificent for me.

"I'd always had a soft spot for Chelsea. Ruud Gullit had been there, Glenn Hoddle before. They were on their way up and they were trying to play a different brand of football."

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