His first season at Elland Road didn’t pan out as he would have liked and Pole Mateusz Klich found himself heading back to Holland with FC Utrecht on a half-season loan deal, just six months after arriving from FC Twente.
Under then head coach Thomas Christiansen, Klich wasn’t even a bit-part player, appearing just five times in the Sky Bet Championship and earning just 135 minutes of game time. Whilst back in the Eredivisie at Utrecht, Klich featured in 14 games, scoring one goal and providing a further three assists.
Saying that he had ‘unfinished business’ at Leeds United, Klich returned to Elland Road and set about re-establishing himself in the plans of new Whites manager Marcelo Bielsa. With pre-season behind him ,that’s just what Mateusz Klich has done. He’s featured in all four of Leeds’ Sky Bet Championship games, scoring in the opening two games against Stoke City and Derby County, as well as providing an assist against the Rams.
It is form that has been appreciated by Leeds United fans, and seemingly by some away from Elland Road, far beyond West Yorkshire:
Polish press appear confident that #lufc Klich @Cli5hy will get a call up for the national side for their UEFA Nations League game vs Italy & friendly vs Ireland, due to his strong start this season. Klich has 10 caps but hasn’t featured in 4 years. Quite the turnaround.
— Mark Kielesz-Levine (@MarkLevine7) August 23, 2018
Made In Leeds’ Levine (above) rightly points out that Klich hasn’t featured for the Polish national side for nearly four years, having made his début as a cameo substitute in a 2-1 victory over Argentina back in 2011. A two-year gap then ensued before a return to the national side with a goal-scoring, assist-providing friendly return against Denmark in a 3-2 win.
After featuring in four World Cup qualification games in 2013, it was a run of four games in the following year that saw him make his final appearance for Poland. This was a 71-minute appearance against minnows Gibraltar in a European qualifying game. Since then, nothing, no recognition.
Yet according to Levine, that could just be about to change.
