Leeds United have five players on their books who can play for Wales, and Craig Bellamy has admitted he tried to sign one when at Burnley.
Charlie Crew is on loan with Doncaster Rovers, but Ethan Ampadu, Karl Darlow, Dan James, and Joe Rodon are all Leeds United players involved in Craig Bellamy’s plans, with each of them called-up to the internationals with England and Belgium.
Bellamy has had an interesting career as a manager already, with the Welshman initially becoming part of the U-21 team coach for Belgian side Anderlecht following the appointment of his former Manchester City teammate Vincent Kompany as first-team manager.
He later worked as an assistant to Kompany before reuniting with the Belgian at Burnley. In May 2024, after Kompany left to join Bayern Munich in the wake of Burnley’s relegation from the Premier League, Bellamy was appointed acting head coach temporarily as well.
However, not long after, Bellamy was announced as the Wales boss. That was around 15 months ago now, and he has worked with Rodon and co. since, although both Ampadu and Rodon missed the last set of internationals.
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Craig Bellamy makes Burnley admission regarding Leeds’ Joe Rodon
Bellamy has not worked with either of the pair recently, but he did have James, Darlow, and Crew to call upon for the Canada and Kazakhstan fixtures during the last break.
He is looking forward to working with Rodon, in particular, having eyed the defender in 2018 as a potential loan at Oxford United in February of that year. Negotiations broke down over Bellamy working for the club, though.
More interestingly perhaps, Bellamy has made the admission that he wanted Kompany’s Burnley to bring in the centre-back. He was asked about whether Rodon had unfinished business in the Premier League with Leeds.
Speaking during his squad announcement press conference today, he said: “Another I have spoken about on a number of occasions. No surprise. He has all the attributes to belong in the Premier League.
“I’ve been a big fan of him for a number of years. I do follow Welsh players and I do have a soft spot for Welsh players as well, so I do really like to watch their developments.
“But his, I’ve been able to watch — and from his loan spells as well. I remember, even, when I was going to go into Oxford, I was already looking at bringing him in on loan. So, he’s a player I’ve had my eye on.
Leeds signed Rodon from Spurs in a £10million deal last summer but Bellamy wanted him, adding: “When we were at Burnley, we wanted to bring him in. We obviously felt, and I obviously felt, that he was a player for the high level.
“What we’re seeing now is that player. I didn’t answer it, sorry. Yeah, I’m a big fan.”
Troy Deeney loves Joe Rodon as well, particularly after seeing him score and perform well in the recent 2-2 draw with Bournemouth. Rodon was labelled a ‘beast’ by Leeds teammates for his performance against the Cherries
Burnley missed out with Rodon as Jermaine Beckford lays down challenge
The Welshman has incredible durability and availability, with the 27-year-old having started the last 88 league games in a row now for Daniel Farke.
He is now adding more strings to his bow after Rodon broke career shooting stats for Leeds — and it’s why Jermaine Beckford is backing Rodon to score more regularly. He said: ““This is an area of his game that needs to improve.
“I think defensively, he is fantastic, the aggression is there, the pace is there, the awareness of positional sense is unbelievable. It’s really, really good.
“The only side that lets him down is in the attacking area. And we’ve seen today the positive sides of it. If he’s able to chip in with five, six, seven goals this season, and seven’s a little bit of a stretch, don’t get me wrong.
“But if he can get himself four, five, six goals this season, I think that’s brilliant. And that shows how much we’ve improved from set-pieces.”
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