Jimmy Kebe: Renaissance Man

It was a damp, chilly April lunchtime in North London two years ago. A struggling Royals side is being toyed with by an Arsenal team bristling with stars such as Van Persie, Walcott and Adebayor. Things don't look good as the home side capitalise on an error by Ibrahima Sonko and Adebayor finishes with a cool, clinical touch. This could be bad. We've not created very much, and I'm sat a stone's throw from the suffering Reading fans, but perversely I'm in amongst the Gooner faithful. The worst place to be as I have to endure the taunts and the endless singing of 'We'll never play you again' but cannot respond. It's cold. It's wet. Frankly, I want to go home. And then something happens that brightens my day a little. A gangly, unlikely looking winger we've not had for long picks the ball up in the Arsenal half and runs with it. He runs with pace and intent, and a frisson of expectancy ripples through the travelling fans as we suddenly look like we have a threat...

...and then he falls over in a heap, leaving the ball behind for Arsenal sweep away with.

Oh Jimmy. What might have been.

And so the cult legend of Jimmy Kebe was born. Occasionally he would do something brilliant leaving defenders in his wake, but more often that not it would end with a skewed cross into the crowd, or a comical stumble. But Jimmy Kebe always tried, he had a go. Even when things didn't work out he didn't change his style or his attitude to the game. Even when the fans groaned and got on his back, he still showed no fear and just had a go. I was a fan, because whatever happened it was entertainment. And whatever anyone thinks football simply has to be entertaining. To be thrilling and ripe with the possibility of glory and of failure, often in equal dollops.

At the end of last season with the club in the doldrums I wondered if he'd had enough chances to show his true potential. The cardinal sin of the talented footballer is to let that talent go to waste. But there were promising signs in the early part of the season - even when we were not winning many games - that Kebe was beginning to make a difference. Chipping in with the odd goal, making plenty of assists and always changing the game when he came on as a sub. The renaissance was well underway. With the Royals, under the accomplished tutelage of Brian McDermott, looking towards an unbelievable late dash for the play-offs, Jimmy Kebe is the name on many Royals fans' lips.

A seemingly quiet and unfussy character who appears to be just happy to play and get on with his job, he's proven to be an absolute revelation in the last few months: fast, skilful and often quite deadly in front of goal. Forget the badge kissers, Jimmy Kebe is well on his way to becoming a Reading FC cult legend.