Player remembers time at Leeds fondly – Warm memories thanks to sporting director ‘father’

Former Leeds United defender Giuseppe Bellusci has paid tribute to Nicola Salerno, fondly remembering the time they spent together at Elland Road. He’s been speaking to Tuttomercatoweb.

Salerno, a former sporting director at Leeds, passed away this week following a long illness. He had enjoyed a long, varied career in Italy before joining Leeds under Massimo Cellino in July 2014.

His time at the club only lasted a year but that saw plenty of goings on under the often-chaotic Cellino ownership.

Thanks to his knowledge of Italian football, there was a particular focus on that market when it came to transfers. Bellusci was one of those to join under the director. He arrived in 2014 and went on to spent the next three years at Elland Road, returning to Italy in 2017.

His time in white was not a memorable one by any means, despite 61 appearances in total, 57 of which came in the Championship.

But Bellusci certainly has fond memories nonetheless. And they are mostly built around Salerno, with whom he clearly enjoyed a close relationship. In fact, he sees him as something of a footballing father.

“I had established a very important relationship with Nicola on a human level,” he said.

“He was a person very dear to me; from Catania, he also took me to Leeds and Palermo. We had a daily relationship.”

That daily relationship was strengthened in Leeds, where Bellusci’s memories are fondest. Indeed, there’s one particular thing he remembers most when asked for his ‘first memory’ of Salerno.

“The long walks, the coffees. In Leeds, we lived nearby; we’d wake up in the morning and take a long walk downtown, then drink tons of coffee,” he added.

For Bellusci, Salerno was an old-school director and a footballing gentleman. And that will always be the overriding memory as far as he’s concerned.

“The human relationship was more genuine and important than the professional one,” he concluded.

“He was almost like a father to me. He was a great sporting director, but he was also a great man. A calm, diplomatic, humble person. He was very important to me.”