Leeds United cult hero reveals England return desire with Marcelo Bielsa as his inspiration

The former Whites centre-back played an important role in Bielsa’s squad during the Championship title-winning 2019/20 campaign and although with promotion secured he suffered a serious knee injury – sustaining a tear in his anterior cruciate ligament – Berardi was offered a one-year contract that kept him at Elland Road until the summer of 2021.

He returned to matchday squads in March 2021 and played the final two matches of the Premier League campaign to complete a 157-game Whites career. Both he and Pablo Hernandez were given standing ovations by fans as they walked around the pitch on the last day of the season having been given starts by Bielsa, who insisted they were solely on merit and not sentimental decisions on his part.

Speaking in an interview with Area Coach, Berardi has revealed that he has already turned his thoughts to a post-playing career in which Bielsa’s teachings will play a part. And he hopes to begin in England where lower down the pyramid opportunities could come more readily than in other European countries.

"The way the figure of the coach is conceived, I'd really like to start in England, where the tasks are more 360° in managerial aspects than in other countries,” he said.

"In the English minor leagues there are many young ex-footballers who have had the opportunity to emerge despite their lack of experience, in other parts it is more difficult.”

Berardi is considering completing UEFA’s combined C and D coaching courses this summer in Italy at the end of this season, and wherever the immediate future takes him, he foresees working first with youngsters.

"It would allow me a chance to find out what kind of person I would be in the new role and have a better chance of making mistakes without too much pressure,” he said.

And although he hopes to become a coach who has a somewhat closer relationship with players than Bielsa did, a ‘happy medium’ as he puts it, there are teachings that he will take from his time playing under the Argentine and try to replicate.

“To tell the truth, I'm not yet thinking about the principles I'd like to bring, for now I'm limiting myself to studying a lot how to set up a session, or a cycle of sessions, in the most appropriate way possible,” he said.

"I would like to have a similar weekly work setting as Marcelo, with the same attention to detail on an individual level on individual players. I like dynamism and attacking football, but one that is tidy from a defensive point of view, that has great solidity, which doesn't necessarily mean defending low and with many men. I also experienced it with Bielsa: in Leeds we attacked with a lot of players but always paying great attention to preventive defence.”

Since leaving Leeds Berardi, now 34, has featured for Sion and current club AC Bellinzona in his native Switzerland. The defender has captained his team for the last four games and played every minute of the last 17 league outings. He’s yet to receive a red card since departing Elland Road, having been dismissed eight times for Leeds.