Marcelo Bielsa: The Anti-Narcissist.

Yesterday, with everything that's happening in Ukraine, I didn't much care about football.

Today, I still don't care too much about football.

But, like most Leeds United fans, I am really saddened by the sacking of Head Coach, Marcelo Bielsa, following recent bad results. (There were plenty of mitigating factors, but that's another story...)

In a world where narcissistic behaviour seems to be so abundant, and well-rewarded, in leadership, Bielsa was the least narcissistic leader you could reasonably imagine.

You could even call him an anti-narcissist.

When the team succeeded, it was all about the players – they did it, not him...

And when the team foundered, he took it all on himself without whispering a word of criticism of his players.

Other more narcissistic bosses have no qualms about taking all the praise and dishing out all the blame – naming and shaming in front of the cameras!

Bielsa was different.

He saw the football club.

He saw the city.

He saw the fans.

He saw all of their needs.

And he worked tirelessly to meet those needs.

He made those who have been tarred with slurs of "dirty Leeds", "dirty northerners", and "Leeds scum" (regional discrimination still seems to be socially acceptable in the UK...) feel like they were seen, heard and cared for.

He also believed in principles that went deeper than expediency, self-preservation and self-aggrandisement.

He was the opposite of Nietzsche's "last man", the one who gives no place for creativity or the pursuit of excellence.

Instead, Bielsa was a dreamer – a saviour of sorts, as articulated by James Allen in his classic 'As a Man Thinketh':

“The dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as they realities which it shall one day see and know.

“Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, labouring humanity would perish.”

So, although I'm saddened by Bielsa's abrupt departure, I'm also grateful for the memories that he gave us through his daring to dream in the face of ridicule, to be a creator, and to care.

In the midst of the challenges and trials we face in life, we need more leaders among us like Marcelo Bielsa – a personification of stewardship.

Gracias, Marcelo!