There is a distinctly Leeds United flavour to the quarter-finals of the Copa America.
Three former managers — Marcelo Bielsa, Jesse Marsch and Thomas Christiansen — have guided Uruguay, Canada and Panama respectively through to the last eight of the competition in the United States. They also represent a line of succession (with a brief interruption from Paul Heckingbottom) in the Elland Road dugout from June 2017 to February 2023.
Uruguay are among the Copa favourites, Canada have got out of their group on their competition debut, while Panama are one of the surprise packages. Of the three teams, there is little guessing where Leeds fans’ allegiances will lie based on their love for Bielsa.
Christiansen’s stint in charge of Leeds feels long in the memory now, part of those hazy pre-Bielsa days scorched willingly from the brain once 16 years of top-flight exile came to an end. The former Barcelona and Spain player was only at the club for eight months in a spell from June 2017 to February 2018 but proved to be an important transitional phase in Leeds’ journey to winning promotion under Bielsa in 2019-20.
Replacing Garry Monk with the goal of winning promotion, Christiansen’s possession-based style was initially a hit with Leeds. The Danish-born ex-striker landed the job after impressing former owner Andrea Radrizzani and ex-sporting director Victor Orta in a job interview in Madrid. Winning five of his first seven games, to put Leeds top of the Championship table for the first time in 13 years, promised more than he was ultimately able to achieve before the reigns were given to Heckingbottom for the final 16 games of 2017-18.
Christiansen at Elland Road in August 2017 (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
After a brief spell in Belgium with Union Saint-Gilloise, Christiansen has been Panama head coach since July 2020 and their progress has been positive ever since. Advancing to the knockout stages at the Copa America is their first time going beyond the group stages — and along with Canada, they are the only CONCACAF nation to do so this time around. They made their Copa debut in 2016 but since 2020 have been subject to a strategic overhaul with Christiansen at its centre and qualification for the 2026 World Cup the aim.
Missing out on a place at Qatar 2022 is the only major blot on his record — with Panama reaching the 2023 Gold Cup final and a CONCACAF Nations League semi-final in 2024, both of which they lost to Mexico (by 1-0 and 3-0 score lines respectively). Not bad for a country with a population of just under 4.5 million.
Christiansen has been so successful that he was included in an International Federation of Football History & Statistics’ longlist of nominees for best national team manager. The award was won by Argentina’s World Cup-winning coach Lionel Scaloni.
Christiansen celebrates victory over Bolivia (Rich Storry/Getty Images)
Much like when he first took over Leeds, Christiansen has transformed Panama into a ball-playing side. Panama have often used a 3-4-3 and they fared well in Group C, only conceding to Bielsa’s Uruguay. Against the USMNT, Panama caused an upset in a 2-1 win — Leeds player Brenden Aaronson was on the bench — before beating Bolivia 3-1 to book their spot in the knockouts. Coming into the tournament, Christiansen wanted his side to be the surprise package, referencing Morocco’s fourth-placed finish at the 2022 World Cup, and they certainly have been. They play Colombia for a place in the semi-finals.
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“We want to dominate and control matches and take the game where we want it,” Christiansen said earlier this year of his team’s style. “It’s difficult because individually we aren’t better than a lot of teams, but if each player understands their role and their importance and responsibilities to the team, we can compete.”
As is to be expected of a former Barcelona player of his generation, Christiansen is inspired by Johan Cruyff in his tactical approach and took positives from his spell with Leeds into subsequent roles in Belgium and with Panama. Some of the players signed in his time as manager at Elland Road, such as Pontus Jansson, Ezgjan Alioski and Samuel Saiz, were success stories, while Jay-Roy Grot and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson were less suited.
Inconsistency proved to be an issue for Leeds under Christiansen after the bright start, with a seven-match winless run bringing an end to his tenure with Leeds in 10th place, seven points off the play-offs. Though his style of play was broadly popular, critics felt he was tactically naive at times, with owner Radrizzani apologising to fans for the “mistake” of appointing him.
Since taking the job with Panama, having lived in the country as a child, Christiansen has benefited from a new high-performance training centre completed in 2023 for the national team. While he says it has been the biggest challenge of his career, his analysis of players eligible to play for Panama has been crucial, as he scouted 63 players to present at his interview for the job. Improving players has been key, too, and has seen him draw on the knowledge of Portugal manager Roberto Martinez for his advice on both senior and age-group player development, based on the Spaniard’s past work with Belgium.
With the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, there is every chance all three former Leeds managers could be at the next tournament, with Canada qualifying automatically as hosts and Uruguay in rich form. Should Panama make it for the first time since 2018, Christiansen’s goal will be achieved — and they stand a good chance of performing better than their three group game defeats in Russia.
(Top photo: Eliecer Aizprua Banfield/Jam Media/Getty Images)
