Mateusz Klich interview: ‘My only regret at Leeds is getting promoted during Covid’ — The Athletic 12/10/24
By Nancy Froston
Mateusz Klich literally left his mark on Leeds United.
On a wall outside their Elland Road stadium is a physical
reminder of what the Poland international achieved at the club. It’s a mural
that he painted himself, reading ‘Champions 2020’ — and it is still in place.
He hopes to have the same impact at his current employers DC United as they
approach the closing stages of their 2024 season chasing a place in the
title-deciding play-offs and a shot at a fifth MLS championship.
Klich knows what it takes to win after helping secure Leeds’
promotion back to the Premier League after 16 years away as 2019-20 EFL
champions. He is determined to enjoy more title success with their fellow
United from the U.S. capital.
“At this time of the season, everyone needs to win games,”
Klich tells The Athletic from Washington. “There are only five teams in our
division (the 15-team Eastern Conference, with the top nine making the
play-offs) who qualified early, which makes things more interesting when every
team needs to win right to the end. There are no easy games, it’s shifting all
the time. It’s not just teams setting up in a 4-4-2 block, the games are more
open, and I like that sort of game. You have to take more risks, we want to be
on the front foot and dominate.”
Playing intense, front-footed football is not a new concept
for the midfielder, given his history working with Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds,
where the football was as entertaining as it was successful. With just
Charlotte FC left to play in the regular season at home today and a three-point
cushion over a chasing pack, eighth-placed DC are in a good position to secure
a play-off place. It has been a topsy-turvy season with goal-laden scorelines —
including 4-3 and 2-1 wins over Nashville SC and New England Revolution this
month pushing them one step closer to a top-nine finish.
“We should have been in a better position,” Klich says. “We
had a lot of games that we should have won but we didn’t. We also had a lot of
injuries, so it’s been a crazy season for us. We still have a chance to go for
the play-offs and we’re more than capable of achieving that. It’s going to be
interesting. We dropped a lot of points on the way, so we could have been in a
better position, but that’s football. We’re in a decent position, we want to
attack the play-offs.”
After missing out on the play-offs last season with a
12th-placed finish under Wayne Rooney’s management, this year has been an
improvement for DC. Former Liverpool and Belgium striker Christian Benteke tops
the MLS goal-scoring chart with 23 and Klich has contributed two goals and five
assists in his 30 league appearances.
Playing a prominent role in the team is exactly what led the
now 34-year-old to move Stateside in January last year after six years in
England ended with a gradually diminishing role at Leeds under Jesse Marsch.
Signed from Dutch side FC Twente in 2017, Klich made 195
Leeds appearances, scoring 24 goals and assisting 21. After an error in his
first league start away against Cardiff City, he was sent out on loan to
Utrecht back in the Netherlands for the second half of that season. Klich then
became a mainstay of the midfield under Bielsa and was instrumental in his
promotion-winning side. Like many of Leeds’ squad at the time, Klich felt he
improved as an individual under the guidance of the man now managing Uruguay’s
national team.
“He’s probably one of the best coaches in the world to make
you a better player,” he says of Bielsa. “He made every one of us 200 per cent
a better player than we were before we met him. He’s really good at doing this
and our group was special. We had a good connection between us, we had a good
team with no egos. We worked really hard. Not many of us had ever played in the
Premier League, so we wanted to give everything we had to do it.
“We trusted in the manager and it worked out well. It was a
good time. It was very intense because he is that way and there weren’t many
days off.
“Before Bielsa, if you’d said I would play 80 games in the
Premier League, I would never have believed that could happen. We caused some
trouble in the Premier League and we surprised a lot of teams. It was a good
season, but from the first season to the second season was hard. We managed to
stay up but the third season, I only played the first half of the year, and
then I moved to the U.S.”
Klich picks his first Premier League goal, scored in a 4-3
defeat against Liverpool at Anfield in September 2020, as his favourite moment
in a Leeds shirt. As a fan favourite at Elland Road for his hard work and
wind-up antics, the Pole found a home away from home in West Yorkshire.
Though the change in management from Bielsa to Marsch
eventually meant he played a less prominent role at the club, he left England
with almost exclusively fond memories.
“The only thing I regret — that we got promoted during
Covid, and there were no fans in the stadium or a parade in the city,” he says.
“They waited 16 years for that and we couldn’t properly celebrate with the
fans. I was hoping last season that the boys could go up and we could have a
double parade to celebrate (Leeds lost in the Championship’s play-off final),
but they have another chance now.
“I’m a smart player, I knew it (the end of his time at
Leeds) was coming. I had a conversation with Jesse and he said I would be
playing less. I agreed but I didn’t want to leave Leeds, so I stayed and agreed
to that role. That was all good. But (then) I had the opportunity to move on
and play more, so I took it. That’s football, and it’s pretty simple in the
end. You’re getting older, younger players come in, new managers come in and
bring their own players. It’ll probably happen to me here, too. Eventually,
I’ll have to move.”
DC represented the right opportunity at the right time for
Klich, who had always thought about playing in MLS one day. While he misses
fish and chips and other parts of life in England, he settled easily in
Washington, which he says reminds him of cities in Europe. Klich has been able
to continue pursuing his hobbies away from football — fashion and producing
graffiti artwork — as well as embracing his role as an experienced player in
coach Troy Lesesne’s squad.
“The big influence was Wayne Rooney last season,” Klich
says. “He brought me here and he wanted me here, which was important. Everyone
enjoyed working with him. I told my agent that if I ever went to the U.S.,
which was the plan from years ago, that I wanted to live in a good city and
explore the country, so I could enjoy living here. Everything came together and
it became a good plan. The weather is better in Washington (than in Leeds).
“I’m an older player now, with a lot of experience from
Europe, so I’m just trying to help. If anyone has any questions about my
career, then they can ask me. But at the same time, I’m not walking around
saying that people have to listen to me because I’ve played in the Premier
League and the Championship. When you get on the pitch, nobody cares about
whether you have played in England, Holland, Germany or wherever. On the field,
nobody gives Christian (Benteke) more respect because he played for Liverpool.
Actually, I think it makes people want to prove they are better than me.”
As he comes to the end of his second season in MLS, Klich
still keeps a keen eye on Leeds’ fortunes. He hopes to be a regular visitor
back to England when his schedule allows but in the short term, the post-season
will bring a trip home to Poland and more time to travel around the United
States.
If DC make the play-offs it will delay those plans as they
would potentially face navigating as many of seven games to seal victory in the
MLS Cup — the title decider scheduled for December 7.
Should they pull it off, Klich will be on hand to paint a
new sister version of the Elland Road Champions mural outside Washington’s Audi
Field.