“Love has to be with your own” – Leeds boss Bielsa frustrated by fans supporting faraway clubs

Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa has questioned fans following teams from hundreds of miles away instead of their local teams.

Bielsa has worked all over the world for a number of clubs, a fact that means he’s pretty accustomed to seeing people supporting different teams.

While that’s not much of an issue at Elland Road, with Leeds fans by and large from the local area and very proud of that fact, it’s not been the case elsewhere.

For example, in his native Argentina, where Bielsa managed both Newell’s Old Boys and Velez Sarsfield, it is common to see fans showing their support for the likes of Real Madrid rather than their local team.

Embed from Getty Images

And that is something the Leeds boss cannot work out, suggesting there is something wrong with the game when the big clubs are dominating the market so much that smaller teams are forgotten by their own fans.

“How can we be happy that in Rosario, in my city, we see a boy wearing a Real Madrid shirt or go to Africa and see a boy wearing a Bayern Munich shirt?” he said in an interview with DAZN.

“Love has to be with your own, with what is local, with what is within reach.

“There are five or ten teams in the world; who is going to pay attention to what is their own?”