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RECORD DATE NOT STATED Copa America USA 2024 Colombia vs Uruguay - Semifinal Marcelo Bielsa head coach of Uruguay during the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024 Semi-final match between Colombia and Uruguay, at Bank of America Stadium, on July 10, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. CHARLOTTE NORTH CAROLINA UNITED STATES PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxMEXxCHNxRUS Copyright: xAdrianxMaciasx 20240710190611_CA_SF_2024_COL_URU_BIELSA65
Marcelo Bielsa remains a cult hero at Leeds United, and the team he guided to promotion in 2020 has well and truly cemented its place in the club’s folklore.
The former Leeds boss is back in England this week, getting the Uruguay national team ready for a friendly against the England national team on Friday night.
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Bielsa’s standing at Leeds is beyond question. He brought an end to the club’s 16-year absence from the top flight in 2020 and then led them to a top-half Premier League finish in his very first season.
The Argentinian transformed the careers of several Leeds players, and some of them owe everything to what he did to elevate them into Premier League footballers.
3 Leeds United stars who owe their careers to Marcelo Bielsa
Patrick Bamford
Bielsa signed Bamford in the summer of 2018, and the former Leeds striker played the best football of his career under the former Whites boss.
He turned into a goalscoring machine in the Championship and played a huge role in helping Leeds to get promoted to the Premier League in 2020.
However, there were question marks over whether he could do it at the top level, and he answered them emphatically in the 2020/21 season.
Bamford scored 17 goals and registered nine assists in the Premier League as Leeds shocked everyone to finish in the top half of the league table.
Injuries meant the forward never really captured that form again, but under Bielsa, he briefly became one of the top strikers in English football.
Kalvin Phillips
Phillips was a talented academy graduate, but his career was not going anywhere before Bielsa arrived. No one really understood where his best position in midfield was, and the Argentinian clarified that.
Under the former Leeds boss, the former Leeds star turned into the best deep-lying midfielder in English football and a certainty in the England team.
His stock just rose under Bielsa, and Phillips ended up starting for England in the final of the European Championship and earned him a big move to Manchester City.
Phillips’ career never really recovered once he joined Manchester City, and he is now trying to reinvent himself in the Championship at Sheffield United.
However, Bielsa turned him into the ‘Yorkshire Pirlo’ and a top England star during an era when the national team became a force again on the international stage.
Mateusz Klich
The midfielder joined Leeds in 2017, but struggled to settle and was loaned out to FC Utrecht in the January transfer window in 2018.
Klich was almost certain to leave Leeds the summer Bielsa arrived at Elland Road. However, an injury during pre-season meant Klich got his chance to impress, and he never looked back.
He started 92 consecutive Championship games, including the 2018/19 playoffs, and was only left out once promotion had already been secured in the 2019/20 season.
The Polish midfielder impressed in the Premier League as well and became a cult hero at Elland Road before he eventually left.
Klich was not supposed to become anything at Leeds or play in the Premier League. But a little rub of the green and Bielsa’s faith turned him into a beloved player for the fans.