Leeds United

Also written as Leeds.

The club

Leeds United were founded on 17 October 1919, formed out of the wreckage of Leeds City, who had been expelled from the Football League. They have played at Elland Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire, since the beginning; capacity is 37,645. The club play in all white with the White Rose of York on the badge and are known as the Whites, or Leeds. Ethan Ampadu is captain. The kit is made by Adidas and carries Red Bull sponsorship, Red Bull having taken a stake in the club.

Recent seasons

Leeds finished ninth in the Premier League in 2020/21, their first season back after a 16-year absence, and 17th in 2021/22. They were relegated in 2022/23.

Two Championship seasons followed. In 2023/24 they finished third with 90 points, beat Norwich City 4-0 on aggregate in the play-off semi-final and then lost the final 1-0 to Southampton at Wembley on 26 May 2024, Adam Armstrong scoring on 24 minutes in front of 85,862. In 2024/25 they went up as champions with 100 points from 46 games, 29 wins, 13 draws and four defeats, 95 goals scored and 30 conceded. Burnley also finished on 100 points; Leeds took the title on goal difference. It was the club's fifth second-tier championship.

The 2025/26 return to the Premier League ended 14th with 47 points: 11 wins, 14 draws and 13 defeats, 49 goals scored and 56 conceded. Dominic Calvert-Lewin was top scorer with 14 league goals and 15 in all competitions. Leeds reached the FA Cup semi-final, beating Derby County 3-1 and Norwich City 3-0 and winning shootouts against Birmingham City and West Ham United before losing 1-0 to Chelsea. They went out of the EFL Cup in the second round on penalties to Sheffield Wednesday. It was the first season since 2022/23 in which no promoted club was relegated.

Honours and landmarks

Three league titles: 1968/69, 1973/74 and 1991/92, the last of them the final First Division championship before the Premier League. One FA Cup, 1972. One League Cup, 1968. Two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, 1968 and 1971. Two Charity Shields. Five second-tier titles, most recently 2024/25.

Leeds reached the European Cup final in 1975 and lost to Bayern Munich. Jack Charlton holds the appearance record with 773. Peter Lorimer is the leading scorer with 238 goals. The club went 34 league matches unbeaten between October 1968 and August 1969, and 39 consecutive home matches unbeaten between May 1968 and March 1970. Record attendance at Elland Road is 57,892 against Sunderland in an FA Cup replay on 15 March 1967. Record fee received is £55m from Barcelona for Raphinha in 2022; record fee paid is £36m to Hoffenheim for Georginio Rutter in 2023.

Notable scorelines

Record league win: 8-0 against Leicester City in Division One on 7 April 1934. Record league defeat: 1-8 against Stoke City in Division One on 27 August 1934, four months after that Leicester result. Record win in all competitions: 10-0 against Lyn Oslo in the European Cup on 17 September 1969. Heaviest defeats in all competitions are 7-0, suffered more than once, most recently against Manchester City in December 2021.

From last season, the two results worth having are the 3-1 home win over Chelsea in December 2025 and the 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in April 2026. The two worst were both against Arsenal: 5-0 away in August 2025 and 4-0 at Elland Road in January 2026.

Head-to-head notes

Leeds do not publish all-time head-to-head records on their own website, and no published all-time record could be established for any of their 2026/27 Premier League opponents. Last season's results are the firmest recent ground.

Against Manchester United, the rivalry that matters most to Leeds supporters, they drew 1-1 at Elland Road and lost 2-1 at Old Trafford in 2025/26. Against Liverpool they drew both, 3-3 at home and 0-0 away. Against Arsenal they lost both heavily, 5-0 and 4-0. Against Everton they won 1-0 at home and drew 1-1 away. Against Chelsea they won 3-1 at home in the league and then lost 1-0 to them in the FA Cup semi-final, so Chelsea are the opponent with the freshest score to settle. Leeds also lost to Sheffield Wednesday on penalties in the EFL Cup second round, though Wednesday are now in League One.

Three clubs come up from the Championship this season: Coventry City, back after 25 years, Ipswich Town after one, and Hull City after nine. West Ham United, Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers went down.

Right now (2026/27)

Daniel Farke has been manager since 4 July 2023 and is entering his fourth season, having won promotion in 2024/25 and kept Leeds up in 2025/26. He won the Championship twice previously with Norwich City.

The summer was net selling. Out: Pascal Struijk to Brighton and Hove Albion for £15m on 30 June; Karl Darlow to Manchester United on a free on 14 July; Isaac Schmidt to Young Boys for £2m on 16 July; Jack Harrison to New England Revolution for an undisclosed fee on 26 July. In: Harry Wilson from Fulham on a free on 8 July, and centre-back Tarik Muharemovic from Sassuolo for an undisclosed fee on 17 July.

In pre-season Leeds lost 3-2 to Wrexham on 25 July and beat Sunderland 1-0 on 30 July, Lukas Nmecha scoring, with Farke calling it a solid performance. The club launched the 2026/27 kit in New York on 29 July and announced a partnership with BoyleSports the same day.

The Premier League season starts on 21 August 2026. Leeds open away to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday 22 August 2026 at 3pm.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.