Long Elland Road, a street on the southwestern outskirts of Leeds, a former industrial city in the north of England, a mural occupying the entire wall of a terraced house depicts the yellow and blue crest of the city’s football team. It is an area of workers, tenements in typical English red bricks. Football and manufacturing: Leeds was built around textile factories in the 1700s and a little further on stands the silhouette of the stadium of Leeds United, the local club born in 1919.
Football at the time of Covid
Last summer in the parking lot of the club’s arena, which according to statistics can accommodate 37 thousand spectators, two commuters, who every morning came from Manchester in the car with a banquet, they were selling “fake” scarves from newly promoted Leeds in Premier League, the English Serie A. After sixteen long years of relegation to the Second Division, the city club returned to the top flight. The two peddlers, very little English and more from the south, certainly did not imagine that those scarves would remain in the drawers and that they would never be waved around the bend. The Premier League started at the end of August 2020, English football, like everywhere in Europe, left on time, but the stadiums remained empty. Nine months later, everything is still deserted. But the city is in raptures: Friday 19 March, the last championship game in England before the long stop of Easter, Leeds stormed the stadium along the River Thames Fulham, London club. The away win projected the captain Liam Cooper and members in eleventh place in the standings, just 2 points from historic and prestigious clubs such as Arsenal e Aston Villa. On matchday 29, with just 9 left to go, Leeds are closer to Europa League (which is 10 points away) and relegation (15 points away). Not bad for a newly promoted one. “Europe is not within our reach, but we will aim for it next year. In the meantime, we are safe with a margin that leaves us peace of mind ”commented a fan in front of the stadium. Optimism is the best cure for Covid: and optimism overflows to Elland Road. The statue in front of the entrance is surrounded by fresh flowers, crowns, T-shirts, candles. It is the homage of the fans to Peter Lorimer, Leeds’ greatest goalscorer of all time, which earned him undying memory, who passed away on the evening of the victory that propelled the club to the top of the English league table. Ideally, a circle closes: Leeds are back to their former glory. And the credit goes to an Italian.
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The “Magic Nights” with Milan and Juventus
At the entrance to the stadium, some employees in yellow bibs welcome people. They have nothing to do with football: next to the sports facility, a shed has been used as the Vaccination Hub, a vaccination center. They sort out the elderly who have come to receive the dose of AstraZeneca. But they are football fans: “Ah, you Italian? I still remember the match at San Siro ”commented one of them. Leeds United’s football history with Italy is linked to Milan and the “Magic Night” ofNovember 8 of the 2000s. That evening of the Jubilee year, Leeds United meets the Rossoneri. It is the stellar Milan of the living legend Paolo Maldini e Zvonimir Boban (now manager of the club), of the champion Andrij Shevchenko and of Oliver Bierhoff. But the story will be made by an unknown Scottish player born in remote Dumfries: such Dominic Matteo who scores a goal and makes the English win. Even today the people of Leeds talk about it. Only a player with Italian blood in his veins could score a goal at La Scala del Calcio. Against the Italian devils, the “Picchi” of Leeds United (whose nickname is Peacocks) had even played a final many years before: in 1973, in its heyday, at the stage of Thessaloniki United had faced Milan to win the Cup Winners’ Cup. On a pitch heavy with rain, the Rossoneri will win, with a goal from Luciano Chiarugi. Two years ago, it had been better. In the shop for fans inside the stadium, closed to the public but open online, you can also buy the jersey of another final, that of the 1971, when Leeds challenged the Juventus in the deceased Fairs Cup. The English had an unfinished business, which dated back many years: in 1957 the bianconeri had snatched the striker from Leeds John Charles, destined to become a legend. The “Good Giant”, as he will be nicknamed in Italy for his “fair play” (never a warning), which together with Giampiero Boniperti e Omar Sivori will write the history of Juve in the 1960s, he was Welsh but he arrived at Leeds very young at 17 and there he consecrated himself as a thoroughbred forward: 150 goals in eight seasons, with a Guinness peak in 1952, even 42 goals in a single season. Charles was already a champion: to bring him to Turin, the club shelled out the record amount for the time of £ 65,000. At Juventus, Charles will stay for 5 seasons, winning three Scudetti and two Italian Cups, before returning home to Leeds. In the 1971 final, the Italians lost to the British 13th edition of the trophy: these were the years in which Leeds United dominated football; for the bianconeri the umpteenth final lost. It was not just any final, however: it was the last edition of the Cup. It was played in two rounds, home and away, and for the first time in the European cups the away from home goal rule. A rule that mocked Juventus, who reached the final without having suffered any defeat. The double final itself was anomalous: it took place three times. The first leg match in Turin, set for May 26, 1971, was suspended due to an impracticability on the pitch; and it was replayed on May 28th. The following year, the Cup of Fairs disappeared and was replaced, in the international calendar, by the newborn Uefa Cup, today it has become Europa League. By lifting the last Cup of the Fairs in history, Leeds had taken revenge, 15 years late, for the snatching of “King John”.
From the dark years to Radrizzani
After Charles, Leeds also deprived themselves of another star in their history. Before arriving at the Manchester United, where he played for twelve years, becoming one of the myths ofOld Trafford, the defender Rio Ferdinand it was one of Leeds’ jewels. He was sold for cash: the club had taken him from West Ham, another team from London, in the 2000s, not by chance the year of the San Siro feat, for 18 million pounds, world record for a defender at the time. The Top Player was only there for two years because the club had collapsed: he was sold to the Red Devils for 30 million, setting yet another record. Those were the dark years for Leeds United: the same year he was forced to sell the stadium as well. And the following season came the shame of relegation. The Golden Age of Don Revie, the manager who made Leeds great, was now only a distant memory. Fans for decades lived only on nostalgia. It took an Italian to revive a decayed club: Andrea Radrizzani. The 46-year-old Milanese entrepreneur, one of the founders of Media Partners and of MP & Silva of Singapore, a sports rights management company, took over the English club in 2017, buying it from Massimo Cellino. At the time, the skepticism and prejudice that every Italian carries with them in the UK snaked among the fans. In less than four years he has already reached a record: he is the first Italian president of an English club to reach this high, to a (not definitive) prestigious placement in the grim Premier League. And to think that his debut as president was disastrous and did not bode well: the coach Gary Monk he slammed the door in controversy with the new master. For Radrizzani it was a shock. Today, however, the president who arrived from Rho is enjoying success. Obviously Milan is doing well for Leeds. The Italian component has also given its mark to the technical staff: that too appears among the names Simone Farina, former player ofAs Gubbio 1910 (founded nine years before Leeds), the miracle club (two promotions in a row from the old C2 to Serie B in 2007-2009) and ambassador of the Fifa for “Fair Play”. This Leeds too has something miraculous: it is the Sassuolo of the Premier League (but with much more history and coat of arms). Without big names, without the expensive and famous “top players”, with a strong dose of self-sufficiency (9 British players on a bench of 21), Radrizzani’s Leeds United is bringing football back to Yorkshire. The entrepreneur had the foresight to be joined by an important international partner: the American family York, owner of the San Francisco 49ers, the Nfl club: the holding company 49ers Enterprises had entered Leeds with a 15% stake in 2018 and at the beginning of 2021 it rose to 37% of the shareholding. A perfect timing because the almost mathematical salvation means for the club a turnover of 260 million pounds (almost 300 million euros). A nice treasure for a club that until the previous season languished in the English Serie B.
The Bielsa sausage
Just before the bridge over the River Wharfe a Tadcaster, where already two thousand years ago the ancient Romans founded a colony, called spurs, due to the proximity of stone quarries (limestone), a green curtain informs the passer-by that he has arrived at the Devine Meats, the butcher’s “Carni Divine”. A sign warns that you can only enter one at a time: in the small counter there are dozens of varieties of sausages, the specialty of Yorkshire. However, as soon as Leeds United is nominated, the butcher proudly displays a tray with the inscription “Bielsa Sausages”: “It’s a recipe that I invented especially in honor of our coach” begins Nick. It is reddish and spicy because it is inspired by Chorizo, the typical Argentine sausage, “the country of Marcelo”. Marcelo is Marcelo bielsa, the South American manager who brought Leeds back to the Premier League. Nick is Leeds’ biggest fan in the charming village of Tadcaster, the quintessential British countryside, halfway between York and Leeds. The great merit of the Italian owners is to have found a technician who motivated the club. Nick went to Elland Road in person to pay homage to the beloved coach of his gastronomic creation: “They didn’t let me in to deliver the sausages in person, but after a few days, Bielsa wrote me a letter of thanks in person” he swaggers all proud.