Carlos Corberan has claimed working under Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United was a ‘turning point’ in his career.
Reflecting on his time at Leeds, Corberan claimed in an interview with Panenka that his time alongside ‘one of the best coaches in the world’ was a huge moment for him.
Corberan was first brought to Elland Road by former Leeds director Ivan Bravo to work as the club’s U23’s manager back in 2017.
Upon Bielsa’s appointment as first team manager in 2018, Corberan then became Leeds’ assistant, a role he spent two years in before venturing into the world of management on his own.
Having helped Leeds secure promotion to the Premier League, Corberan was then named as Huddersfield Town manager, where he got to within 90 minutes of guiding them to the Premier League.
Corberan clearly benefitted from working under Bielsa
After a brief spell at Olympiacos, Corberan then became West Bromwich Albion manager in October 2022, a position he still holds now after a very positive 12 months in charge.
Reflecting on his time under Bielsa, Corberan feels that was a major turning point in his management career following two poor brief spells in charge of Doxa Katokopias and Ermis Aradippou.
He said: “My process at Leeds begins with Iván Bravo, who is the person who managed the Aspire Academy in Qatar and who today presides over Alcorcón.
“Andrea Radrizzani thought of him to coordinate his project, and he in turn thought of Victor Orta as sports director and me to coach the club’s reserve team, with the idea of implementing a game model that was consistent with that of the first team.
“Later, Victor and Andrea suggested that I join the first team as a future plan; The coach they had chosen was Marcelo Bielsa. I travelled with them to Buenos Aires to meet Marcelo and present the project to him.
“That agreement reached with him was another turning point in my career. I was lucky enough to live and work for two years with one of the best coaches in the world.”
Given how his two spells as manager of two senior sides before moving to Leeds, it is clear that working under Bielsa has really improved him.
He had one of the lowest budgets in the league when he took Huddersfield to the Championship play-off final, and is also performing excellently at West Brom given their off-field problems.
Corberan’s style is considerably different to that of Bielsa’s, but his attention to detail is now certainly second to none.
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