LEEDS.- Soccer is back in England. And with it, an imperious entertainment in times of coronavirus, the fervor of the fans also returned, for now from the safety of their homes.
And Leeds,
yorkshire county town,
resume at a time
fueled the hope that Marcelo Bielsa will return Leeds United to the Premier League.
After a promising, and at times implausible, first season -with “spygate” and a Fair Play gesture included-, the team’s followers have once again entrusted themselves to the Argentine in this campaign. With the rise as north,
the displays of affection multiply
and give rise to the most varied tributes.
Seven dates are left for the end of the Championship and everyone is daydreaming in this city. After the defeat with Cardiff in the resumption of the tournament, as always, some ghosts flew over. Those who were scared last Saturday, with the 3-0 win over Fulham, which allowed Leeds to assert itself in the leadership, with 74 points, followed by West Bromwich, with 71. But at this point, the most valuable thing is the distance with the third (Brentford, with 66), because the first two rise directly to the Premier League.
The solidarity sculpture that traveled from Bali to Leeds
On June 7, in full swing of the global anti-racism movement, protesters in Bristol in south-west England demolished the bronze statue of slave trader Edward Colston. Days later, London authorities decided to cover the effigy of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square – next to the monuments to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi- with the premise of avoiding acts of violence and vandalism. In a few weeks, in an action unrelated to any controversy, a businessman from Leeds, a city in the Yorkshire region, will raffle a sculpture of Marcelo Bielsa on a human scale to support Mind, an organization that assists individuals with mental health problems.
The
75 kilogram brass figure,
with her charitable purpose, she is tied to the life story of 44-year-old Tony Clarke. In October 2002, during a business trip to Bali, Indonesia, he found himself at the epicenter of a series of a terrorist attack that, with the detonation of three bombs, left 202 people dead. Amidst the horror and bewilderment, today a memory in the form of flames, screams, and stacked bodies, Clarke chose to help the wounded and save as many as he could. In conversation with
THE NATION,
He recounts how Leeds United helped him overcome that traumatic experience: “The club has given me hope, determination and passion,” he assumes.
In September 2019, the current season of the Championship has just begun,
Tony and his brother Craig commissioned the sculpture for Bielsa,
In his classic posture sitting on a cube, to a supplier in Indonesia, very close to where the tragic attacks occurred. “I chose Bielsa for what she represents, for what she believes and for the enthusiasm that she generates among the fans,” says Tony. The move to the north of England, it added, took and cost more than anticipated, and included the disappearance of the figure for a week at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.
The Clarke’s original intention, who run a manufacturing company in Batley, a town outside Leeds, was to donate the statue to the club for display at some prominent location. However, the authorities of “Los Blancos” indicated that
Rosario’s technical director would disapprove of that idea
Instead, they suggested they organize a raffle and donate everything raised to a charity. Mindful not only of the Bali episodes, but also of the importance of mental health in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the brothers selected Mind, who has been working since 1946 to raise awareness of mental health, as a beneficiary.
“We believe that Marcelo is going to love this and that the sculpture ends up in the hands of some fanatic”,
imagine Tony.
The father of a nine-month-old girl and with another son on the way, Clarke spoke of what he called the “Bielsa effect” which, he believes, allows players to reach their potential and more: “Get them to think, sleep and eat football.” . But such an effect, look more at, also operates on the fans: “The soccer he proposes can take you out of a bad time and truly make you enjoy yourself.”
El Bansky del Leeds United
On a hill in Beeston, a working neighborhood in South Leeds, a Bielsa mural with the motto
“In Bielsa we trust” (“We believe in Bielsa”)
It guards from the top to the Elland Road stadium. A couple of blocks away, another painting reads, in capital letters in Spanish, “Let’s go Leeds, damn”, the war cry that the Leeds United fans adopted as their own when the Argentine decided to renew as team manager in mid-2019 On the way back, a third work, perhaps a wink for connoisseurs, exhibits the famous bench of the man who in 2018 surprisingly chose to direct in the second division of English football.
The author of the Bielsa murals is Andy McVeigh,
a substitute elementary school teacher, born and raised in Leeds, a fanatic fan of Leeds United, who in his spare time covers graffiti on the city’s internet boxes with club art and positive messages.
Known as Burley’s Banksy,
account to
THE NATION
that started with the graffiti three years ago as a form of therapy and that, a great reaction from the fans involved, could not stop. “It became an addiction,” she says.
Among the dozens of murals alluding to the team, those of Bielsa -available in canvases and mugs- appear among those preferred by the families that come to Elland Road at each local date. The reason, according to McVeigh, is that
the coach “has made Leeds United a better club, on and off the field.”
Enraptured by the high-flying football that the team has shown at times, the artist also highlights Bielsa’s “moral compass”. “In a world with leaders without any kind of ethics, this man comes and proposes the opposite.
He is dignified, he is humble, he is just and he is empathetic.
It is the opposite of the horrible things that we are seeing “, he develops, before allowing himself, disillusioned with the British political leadership, a humorous one:” I really believe that he should be prime minister “.
A few months ago, the support of the fans, who flood the networks with the hashtag #BurleyBanksy, was added by the club authorities. After a group called
“Leeds residents against graffiti”
ruining most of the murals, from Leeds United they summoned McVeigh for a meeting. There they offered him a sum equivalent to a week of his work as a teacher to repaint them, in addition to unrestricted admission to the stadium for him and his son Danny. “They have behaved very well. They are reconnecting with the fans. The previous owners probably would have denounced me,” he compares.
Nervous about the final stretch of the championship – “we can still spoil everything, fine Leeds”, he smiles-,
Leeds United’s Banksy yearns for the long-awaited return to the top flight,
after 16 years, in the city, by the fans and by Danny. But also for Bielsa: “I have never felt like this with a technical director: I know that we are paying him more than any other in the past, but I have never seen someone work so hard to reach the goal.”
La ‘Bierelsa’
“It is no secret that football fans in England love to enjoy a good beer and that the Leeds United fans love Bielsa. How could it fail?” Reasoned Paul Morrison, one of those responsible for
la ‘Bierelsa’,
on the alcoholic beverage that, with a play on words, pays tribute to the Argentine technical director and that, before the massive closure of premises due to the transmission of coronavirus, was
Available in 20 pubs in and around Leeds.
he
designer Russell Walker, whose sketch “The Tactic” drove everyone involved and today illustrates
The idea, devised by Paul and the rest of the team
“Leeds That”
-a podcast that since July 2019 covers the current affairs of the city and the team-, came to fruition after the association with the beer supplier Taylers Beers and the designer Russell Walker, whose sketch “The Tactician” drove everyone involved and today it illustrates a wide range of products.
“I think Bielsa has surprised us all. Partly, because
We have not had a serious technical director in over 20 years.
Marcelo has the respect of the players, the leaders and the fans, and he has a real vision of what the club can become, “Paul explains to
THE NATION.
In this order, it highlights how the Argentine has revalued some
players who were “practically outcasts”
and the illusion that awakens in a hobby that for years only knew of anguish and humiliation.
According to Paul, who dreams that Bielsa will one day participate in the podcast, “Bielsa’s passion, attention to detail and commitment are highly valued by Leeds fans.” And more: “He understands the club and we understand him.”
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