Mateusz Klich literally left his mark on Leeds United.
On a wall outside their Elland Road stadium is a physical reminder of what the Poland international achieved at the club. It’s a mural that he painted himself, reading ‘Champions 2020’ — and it is still in place. He hopes to have the same impact at his current employers DC United as they approach the closing stages of their 2024 season chasing a place in the title-deciding play-offs and a shot at a fifth MLS championship.
Klich knows what it takes to win after helping secure Leeds’ promotion back to the Premier League after 16 years away as 2019-20 EFL champions. He is determined to enjoy more title success with their fellow United from the U.S. capital.
“At this time of the season, everyone needs to win games,” Klich tells The Athletic from Washington. “There are only five teams in our division (the 15-team Eastern Conference, with the top nine making the play-offs) who qualified early, which makes things more interesting when every team needs to win right to the end. There are no easy games, it’s shifting all the time. It’s not just teams setting up in a 4-4-2 block, the games are more open, and I like that sort of game. You have to take more risks, we want to be on the front foot and dominate.”
Playing intense, front-footed football is not a new concept for the midfielder, given his history working with Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds, where the football was as entertaining as it was successful. With just Charlotte FC left to play in the regular season at home today and a three-point cushion over a chasing pack, eighth-placed DC are in a good position to secure a play-off place. It has been a topsy-turvy season with goal-laden scorelines — including 4-3 and 2-1 wins over Nashville SC and New England Revolution this month pushing them one step closer to a top-nine finish.
Klich, second left, playing for DC United (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
“We should have been in a better position,” Klich says. “We had a lot of games that we should have won but we didn’t. We also had a lot of injuries, so it’s been a crazy season for us. We still have a chance to go for the play-offs and we’re more than capable of achieving that. It’s going to be interesting. We dropped a lot of points on the way, so we could have been in a better position, but that’s football. We’re in a decent position, we want to attack the play-offs.”
After missing out on the play-offs last season with a 12th-placed finish under Wayne Rooney’s management, this year has been an improvement for DC. Former Liverpool and Belgium striker Christian Benteke tops the MLS goal-scoring chart with 23 and Klich has contributed two goals and five assists in his 30 league appearances.
Playing a prominent role in the team is exactly what led the now 34-year-old to move Stateside in January last year after six years in England ended with a gradually diminishing role at Leeds under Jesse Marsch.
Signed from Dutch side FC Twente in 2017, Klich made 195 Leeds appearances, scoring 24 goals and assisting 21. After an error in his first league start away against Cardiff City, he was sent out on loan to Utrecht back in the Netherlands for the second half of that season. Klich then became a mainstay of the midfield under Bielsa and was instrumental in his promotion-winning side. Like many of Leeds’ squad at the time, Klich felt he improved as an individual under the guidance of the man now managing Uruguay’s national team.
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“He’s probably one of the best coaches in the world to make you a better player,” he says of Bielsa. “He made every one of us 200 per cent a better player than we were before we met him. He’s really good at doing this and our group was special. We had a good connection between us, we had a good team with no egos. We worked really hard. Not many of us had ever played in the Premier League, so we wanted to give everything we had to do it.
“We trusted in the manager and it worked out well. It was a good time. It was very intense because he is that way and there weren’t many days off.
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“Before Bielsa, if you’d said I would play 80 games in the Premier League, I would never have believed that could happen. We caused some trouble in the Premier League and we surprised a lot of teams. It was a good season, but from the first season to the second season was hard. We managed to stay up but the third season, I only played the first half of the year, and then I moved to the U.S.”
Klich won promotion with Leeds but it was achieved behind closed doors (George Wood/Getty Images)
Klich picks his first Premier League goal, scored in a 4-3 defeat against Liverpool at Anfield in September 2020, as his favourite moment in a Leeds shirt. As a fan favourite at Elland Road for his hard work and wind-up antics, the Pole found a home away from home in West Yorkshire.
Though the change in management from Bielsa to Marsch eventually meant he played a less prominent role at the club, he left England with almost exclusively fond memories.
“The only thing I regret — that we got promoted during Covid, and there were no fans in the stadium or a parade in the city,” he says. “They waited 16 years for that and we couldn’t properly celebrate with the fans. I was hoping last season that the boys could go up and we could have a double parade to celebrate (Leeds lost in the Championship’s play-off final), but they have another chance now.
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“I’m a smart player, I knew it (the end of his time at Leeds) was coming. I had a conversation with Jesse and he said I would be playing less. I agreed but I didn’t want to leave Leeds, so I stayed and agreed to that role. That was all good. But (then) I had the opportunity to move on and play more, so I took it. That’s football, and it’s pretty simple in the end. You’re getting older, younger players come in, new managers come in and bring their own players. It’ll probably happen to me here, too. Eventually, I’ll have to move.”
DC represented the right opportunity at the right time for Klich, who had always thought about playing in MLS one day. While he misses fish and chips and other parts of life in England, he settled easily in Washington, which he says reminds him of cities in Europe. Klich has been able to continue pursuing his hobbies away from football — fashion and producing graffiti artwork — as well as embracing his role as an experienced player in coach Troy Lesesne’s squad.
“The big influence was Wayne Rooney last season,” Klich says. “He brought me here and he wanted me here, which was important. Everyone enjoyed working with him. I told my agent that if I ever went to the U.S., which was the plan from years ago, that I wanted to live in a good city and explore the country, so I could enjoy living here. Everything came together and it became a good plan. The weather is better in Washington (than in Leeds).
Klich playing in the Premier League with Leeds (David Rogers/Getty Images)
“I’m an older player now, with a lot of experience from Europe, so I’m just trying to help. If anyone has any questions about my career, then they can ask me. But at the same time, I’m not walking around saying that people have to listen to me because I’ve played in the Premier League and the Championship. When you get on the pitch, nobody cares about whether you have played in England, Holland, Germany or wherever. On the field, nobody gives Christian (Benteke) more respect because he played for Liverpool. Actually, I think it makes people want to prove they are better than me.”
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As he comes to the end of his second season in MLS, Klich still keeps a keen eye on Leeds’ fortunes. He hopes to be a regular visitor back to England when his schedule allows but in the short term, the post-season will bring a trip home to Poland and more time to travel around the United States.
If DC make the play-offs it will delay those plans as they would potentially face navigating as many of seven games to seal victory in the MLS Cup — the title decider scheduled for December 7.
Should they pull it off, Klich will be on hand to paint a new sister version of the Elland Road Champions mural outside Washington’s Audi Field.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
