The spell at Leeds United was “the weakest of my professional career”, admits the Juve star

Weston McKennie says his time at Leeds was one of the lowest points of his professional career, with the US international admitting he cried after being relegated to the Championship.

The combative midfielder was one of the big signings of the January 2023 summer transfer window, joining on loan from Italian giants Juventus. However, he failed to show the form that marked the start of his career with Schalke in Germany and was part of the Leeds side that crashed out of the Premier League.

McKennie is back to his best with Juventus now and is preparing to play for the US national team on home soil at the Copa America later this month, but he reflected on his time at Elland Road and some of the abuse he he received them.

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“My time at Leeds was probably one of my lowest points, if not the lowest point of my professional career,” McKennie told The Athletic. “I always look at the positive because I was at Juventus, playing week in and week out, and maybe I developed a bit of comfort or complacency, knowing I was going to play at the weekend. Going to Leeds and having the performance we’ve had there and the way it’s turned out in general – four managers in five months, it’s just not going to plan or how I imagined it.

“Football is a world where sometimes it’s unforgiving. People obviously don’t know what footballers go through and the stress footballers go through to perform, because we don’t want to perform badly.

“It’s not like we want to lose games. It’s just that sometimes you have ups and downs, so it hurts. It was probably the first time, apart from this one, for the 2022 World Cup exit, that I cried after the last game of the season at Leeds, when we were officially relegated, I hate to lose and I felt I let down the expectations people had of me.

“When people started attacking me – me as a person in general, not even with football – everyone knows that I have thicker bones than other players because my body shape is the way it is. I don’t realize the effect it has on people, I like to be happy and make people laugh.

McKennie made 20 appearances for Leeds in the 2022-23 campaign, creating just one assist and failing to find the net, before returning to Italy.