Salim Lamrani was Marcelo Bielsa’s translator at Leeds United.
Salim Lamrani wasn’t a football man. In fact, he’s a ‘specialist in relations between Cuba and the United States’, according to Le Monde, but he was a popular figure among Leeds United fans nonetheless.
He was the man responsible for literally getting Marcelo Bielsa’s message across to the media, being the Argentine’s translator in press conferences and post-match interviews.
From August until May last season, Lamrani was an ever-present figure and one who seemed to develop a relationship with many of Bielsa’s playing staff.
On Twitter, he would post photos of random players and give them equally-random nicknames, such as Jack “The Wave” Clarke, or Stuart “The Generous” Dallas, or Izzy “The Sniper” Brown – quirky routines which endeared him to the Whites’ supporters.
But it looks like he won’t be with Leeds this season.
Lamrani, who also worked with Bielsa at Lille, dropped hints on social media that he was perhaps set to pursue other avenues by sharing some memories that he accumulated during his year-long stint in the United Kingdom, such as Dallas inviting him for Christmas dinner when he had nowhere else to go.
And when Marcos Abad, the Whites’ goalkeeping coach, sat beside Bielsa for the post-match press conference after today’s win over Western Sydney Wanderers, translating his words from Spanish to English, it was an even bigger clue that Lamrani had indeed left Bielsa’s side.
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