For the past week, one of the rumours we’ve been seeing in the English press has been that Leeds United are chasing Tottenham Hotspur defender Juan Foyth.
Following a season in which the defender has struggled to get minutes at the London side, he could meet his compatriot Marcelo Bielsa at Elland Road.
That’s the reason why the Argentine media has been following this story as well, and interesting claims come from Infocielo today.
The outlet managed to interview physical coach Gabriel Macaya, who’s previously been part of Bielsa’s staff at French side Lille. And it turns out he’s revealed the manager was already interested in signing Foyth at the Ligue 1 club.
Macaya has previously played for Foyth’s former club Estudiantes de La Plata, and had good contacts to give him reports about the player at the time.
“Although I didn’t work with Foyth, I did have to correlate with the professionals who had him in Estudiantes,” Macaya told Infocielo.
“I had to follow him when he played at Pincha, and he was very close to coming to France with us.”
Macaya said Foyth was part of Bielsa’s plan to make a young squad at Lille, and despite the manager’s departure, their signings turned out to be very profitable for the club.
“It’s very important, when you put together a group, to see the age of the squad. Lille had an average squad age of 22 years, because they had a goal in three years to be able to fight PSG. They planned to bring young footballers.
“In the fraction of work that corresponds to each one of us at that time, Foyth corresponded to me, as Pepe against Sarr. We selected Pepe, he came to Lille, he got there and they sold him for €90m to Arsenal.”
