When sports mattered

The days of loyalty in professional sports are long over. The NBA sees players collude and form “super teams.” The NFL cuts team legends regularly and MLB often trades potential legends before their salaries can be increased. In world soccer, transfer fees have risen to astronomical levels. All of this is for the sake of owner profit and player salaries. Then, ever so rarely, you have a Gaetano Berardi.

Berardi is a Swiss soccer player that has been plying his trade for Leeds United in England since 2014. He came to Leeds when the team was not in the best of circumstances. Leeds United is a storied franchise in English soccer. Easily one of the largest clubs in the country, it fell on financial ruin in the early 2000s and was essentially forced into bankruptcy. (Yes, a professional sports team that was so poorly run that it went bankrupt. Don’t tell Jerry Jones this could happen.) The club was restarted but had to begin a slow move from the lowest levels of competition. Imagine the Cowboys having to restart as a junior college football team with no money.

As a result, when Berardi decided to sign with the club, it was a step that he made because he saw something that others did not. He saw a sleeping giant facing huge obstacles. Yet he did not realize just how bad it really was. Players were forced to buy their own socks and make their own pre-game meals. Players would miss payments and be subject to new coaching changes, often several in a single season. Berardi was a constant throughout. When other players boycotted matches in protest of poor management, Berardi traveled and was willing to play. Not because he supported the owner but because he owed it to the fans to play hard.

For three seasons, things stalled. Leeds United sat stagnate in a second division, the minor leagues of English soccer and Berardi stalled with them. Often one of the most outstanding players for the team, he became loved and respected. He played hard, he played tough, he was the heart and determination of a team that needed a force to channel that energy.

In 2017, a new owner finally purchased the club. In 2018, Marcelo Bielsa was officially appointed as new head coach. Bielsa is a legend in soccer coaching circles. He immediately moved Berardi from his traditional position and made him a central defender, where his hard-nosed style and heart could be fully displayed. In Bielsa’s first year, the club came within one game of winning promotion to the Premier League, the top level of soccer in England. Berardi was a solid, yet unspectacular contributor, often serving as a vocal leader from the sideline in games that he did not play.

Then came the 2019-20 season. Leeds United were the run-away best team in the division but then COVID hit and the season was put on hold. Many players whose contracts were set to expire were given the option of finishing the season with their teams or honoring their contract and leaving. Berardi, ever the servant to his team, chose to play out the season even without a firm contract. When he came in 2014, he was determined to see Leeds United restored as a top club. Why would he leave before it had been completed?

Berardi started the league winning match for Leeds, playing his usual hard defending style. Then tragedy struck. An aging defender that had given his best years and his entire heart to achieving one goal for a city and team, on the very precipice of his goal, was struck down. In an awkward challenge, Berardi tore his ACL. Leeds won the match. Leeds won promotion, but at the cost of the lion of their team.

Out of contract, no paycheck coming in, facing a year recovery, many American sports teams would have simply thanked him and wished him the best. Leeds United, instead, offered Berardi a one year contract in honor of his service to the team. Training like his nickname, the lion, less than one year later, Berardi stepped foot in the English Premier League and took his spot at the heart and attitude of a team that was taking its rightful place among the elites.

This past week, it was announced that Berardi is leaving Leeds after this season. Instead of putting out a press release or allowing the team to make the announcement, Berardi penned a personal farewell letter and sent it to a fan organization for distribution. It was only fitting, Berardi played for the fans, gave his heart for them, and sacrificed for them. As I sat reading his letter, with a tear in my eye, I wished only that more American athletes would follow the Berardi example. Maybe then we could all love sports once again.