Leeds United boss reveals 'discrimination' and family disapproval which prepared him for Whites stress

The Whites head coach, now 49, recalled in his pre-match press conference this week, his time as a student at the prestigious Ivy League university during the early 1990s. Princeton is one of eight world-renowned schools in the United States, alongside the likes of Harvard, Yale and Columbia University, which Marsch attended between 1992 and 1995.

The Leeds boss played college soccer and was required to miss history classes, much to the disdain of his university professors, he told journalists on Friday afternoon. Marsch believes this experience prepared him for the current stress of Premier League management.

"At Princeton when I would tell my professors that I had to miss a class because I was on the soccer team, they would get angry, and they'd say: ‘What are you doing playing a sport here? You're wasting all of our time. This is a high level learning institution,’” Marsch said.

"And even that was like: ‘Oh, okay’, being discriminated against for being an athlete at a learning institution was a new experience for me. So I learned to hide that and I wanted to be taken seriously for who I am.

"Regardless of what I was good at, or bad at, or how I was different or the same, I wanted to be taken seriously. And so I had to adapt. And that's what I would say is, I've been through a lot of stages in my life where I've been [in] over my head. And my, the task is how do you acclimate and assimilate quickly and use your abilities to accelerate everything that you want to be about to be successful?

"You could argue that coming to the Premier League as an American and never being here before as a player was that challenge in itself, and I'm still trying to be the best that I can,” Marsch said.

In addition, the Leeds boss reflected fondly on his decision to study history, including his grandfather’s less-than-delighted response.

"When I declared as a history major, my grandfather asked me, ‘Well, what the heck are you going to do with that degree?’

"By that comment, you could tell he wasn't very impressed,” Marsch added with a grin.

The Whites face a difficult test this afternoon against Brentford, who come into this game in fine form having already beaten Liverpool and Bournemouth since the turn of the year. Leeds on the other hand are still searching for their first three points of 2023.