Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu signs new contract and vows to study Rodri in midfield battle

Ethan Ampadu has tied his future to Leeds United, signing a new contract within two weeks of last season ending and declaring Elland Road the first true home of his career. The 25-year-old captain, who had a year remaining on his deal, says he never entertained the idea of leaving despite acknowledging outside interest.

'I wanted to renew here'

"Everyone could always get to a point where they might have some interest," Ampadu tells The Athletic. "But I wanted to renew here. I am very excited about where this club could go. I was focused on that rather than taking an interest in what else was out there."

Ampadu, Leeds' first signing under Daniel Farke in the summer of 2023 for a then-modest £7million ($9.5m) from Chelsea, has found stability after a nomadic start. He joined Chelsea from Exeter City at 16, made only 12 first-team appearances, and had loan spells at Sheffield United, RB Leipzig, Venezia and Spezia. By 22 he had tasted the Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A, plus 44 Wales caps including Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup.

"Leeds is the club that finally feels like a home," he says. Contract talks were unusually open, involving not just Farke but chairman Paraag Marathe at the top of the club. "It was never a forced conversation. It's always quite an open dialogue. I know how the manager feels, how the owners feel. I like to think they know my vision as well and it's all pretty aligned."

Marathe describes Ampadu as the "father" of the group, setting standards daily at the training complex. Ampadu, for his part, believes the squad is "tight-knit" and carefully recruited for the demands of the Premier League.

The long throw that became a weapon

A defining feature of Leeds' season was Ampadu's long throw. Only Brentford's Michael Kayode (164) launched more long throws into the penalty area than Ampadu's 135 last term. Leeds scored five goals from long throws in the league — behind only Brentford's six — including two in a 4-1 December win over Crystal Palace and two more against Liverpool in a Chicago friendly. New signing Tarik Muharemovic then scored an overhead kick from an Ampadu long throw in a 4-0 pre-season win over Augsburg.

Teammate Brenden Aaronson says his captain returned "throwing it about 20 yards further and 20 yards harder; it's incredible." Ampadu insists it began by accident. "In my career, I had once taken a long throw, and it really wasn't that far. So I didn't even know I had a long throw," he says, recalling how Junior Firpo's injured finger once forced him to take a throw down the line in the Championship.

"There were times in the Championship where I was playing centre-back, and maybe Junior Firpo had a bad finger, so he couldn't take a throw. I would take a throw down the line and it was decent. But it was never like we were going to work on this to attack in the box."

He got early-season stick for having the shortest long throw, but repetition improved it. "I could always throw a tennis ball quite far as a child. I'm not Rory Delap, and I would not say I am a throw-in specialist but we've got a few goals and it's a big part of football." The banter from away fans, he admits, is half the fun: "There's something fun though about going to take a throw-in at an away stadium and hearing the stick."

Learning from the best

Now settled as a holding midfielder, Ampadu studies the game's elite. "I look at a lot of (videos) of Rodri, a lot of Sergio Busquets, the way they control the game. Declan Rice has got a lot of quality in his power. His strength dominates midfield. I look at a combination of a few players and pick out what's good."

On what makes Rodri so difficult: "Composure, timings, his retention of the ball, the space he picks up, his work off the ball, his tenacity, his aggression. Everyone saw that again at the World Cup."

From relegation worry to revival

Leeds finished 14th last season but were never seriously threatened after a wretched start. The turnaround came with a switch to a back three at Manchester City in November — two down at half-time, Farke changed shape, they drew 2-2 and lost only in injury time. "We really showed how together we were," Ampadu says. Leeds lost just two of their next 14 league games and only five of their final 25. New arrivals Jaka Bijol, Anton Stach and Dominic Calvert-Lewin added physicality, while Harry Wilson arrived on a free from Fulham and James Trafford was signed in goal.

The scars of the 2023-24 play-off final defeat to Southampton remain. "One of the worst days I've had in football," Ampadu calls it. But the group has been rebuilt around robust characters.

'The minimum is staying up'

Ampadu is clear on priorities for year two: "The minimum is understanding that the second year in the Premier League can be as hard as the first year, so first, we need to make sure that we stay up. Then we want to push on from where we finished last year." Farke, he says, "wants to take control of games" and is adaptable. The never-die attitude, Ampadu insists, is core to Leeds' DNA: "You give 100 per cent every single game to the very last. That never-die attitude, the fans resonate with it."