ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) – The risk of Marcelo Bielsa visceral.
“If I have to cut off my finger to win tomorrow’s derby, I will,” he told his players, “there are 4 left. “
Bielsa made the year in 1990, during his first year as coach, to ignite his players’ career at Newell’s Old Boys before moving on to archivist Rosario Central.
His team won the Argentine league 4-3, although Bielsa had to lose a finger. But it is one of the first examples of the motivational strategies of a coach he already knew as “El Loco” for his obsessive and explosive personality.
Today, 30 years after starting his training career at the Rosarino club, Bielsa is about to fit in to the last, and colorful, most sensible coach to face the Premier League.
Bielsa has brought Leeds back to the English Premier League after a 16-year absence, and the team will face Liverpool led by Jurgen Klopp at Anfield on Sunday in the first match against the protective champions.
For Bielsa, 65, he was the new focus of a one that started in Rosario and also took him to clubs in Mexico, Spain, France and Italy, with the national groups of Argentina and Chile.
And perhaps an unforeseen career for someone coming from a circle of family members of prominent lawyers. Bielsa’s grandfather, Rafael, was an eminent local instructor and that of several law books. But a young Marcellus broke with the circle of relatives of culture and decided on football. instead, he joined Newell’s Old Boys Academy, the same position Lionel Messi would make his debut later.
But a modest career in the game as a central defender lasted only five years, after which he began running as a youth coach and skill scout at Newell Academy.
Bielsa traveled thousands of kilometres to Argentine towns in search of young talent, and has temporarily become transparent that he was intelligent in detecting them, brought back players such as Gabriel Batistuta and also discovered Mauricio Pochettino, who enjoyed his own fortune as a coach, who led Tottenham to last year’s Champions League final.
Pochettino lived in Murphy, a city about 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Rosario, and he intended to sign for another team, but according to Pochettino, Bielsa showed up at his space one afternoon at one in the morning and convinced to his father to leave him signalal for Newell.
Years later, Pochettino became one of the key players while Newell’s won the Argentine league name in Bielsa’s first year as head coach.
The celebrations of this name had a noisy Bielsa and waving the shirt, which has since rarely shown this kind of raw emotion in public.
“It’s because of the tension he had at the time,” said Juan José Bottoli, a doctor who ran with Bielsa at the time, “the kind of guy who felt in his blood all the paintings he had made. “
Bielsa regained his name the following year after a penalty shootout against Boca Juniors at La Bombonera stadium, but lost the Copa Libertadores in 1992 to Sao Paulo, also on penalties.
This time also gave rise to one of the greatest mythical stories about Bielsa.
After a 6-0 defeat to San Lorenzo in a Copa Libertadores match, a staunch enthusiastic organization came to his doorstep, then Bielsa came out with a hand grenade and threatened to unplug her if the enthusiasts didn’t leave.
These days, it’s your training strategies that we communicate the most.
Since its inception, Bielsa has been obsessed with team preparation, a triviality that, according to his friends, inherits from his circle of family of lawyers, which has resulted in thousands of hours of examination of all facets of the game, while Bielsa tries to minimize the unpredictability of football.
“He has treated us with wonderful demands. In a way it annoyed the younger ones like us,” said Ricardo Lunari, who played for Bielsa in Newell. “But over time, you realize that everything he does is meant to become the first player in the department. “
One of his wonderful inspirations was the winner of the 1995 Champions League, Ajax, trained through Louis van Gaal. This attacking team used a 3-4-3 formation with two ends to the front and a target man, an uncompromising formula used through Bielsa.
Pochettino is far from the only one of Bielsa’s former players to coaches. Others come with Gerardo Martino from Mexico, Eduardo Berizzo from Paraguay, Gabriel Heinze from Argentina and others. Many have learned from the folders that Bielsa gave them as players with long-lasting tactics. execute opponents.
“They were used to adapt to planning and then adapted to their own knowledge,” Bottoli said.
Bielsa left Newell’s in 1993 to sign for the Mexican Atlas, but his legacy in Rosario is still alive.
“His sense of belonging and intense training make him an idol for all of us,” said Newell Vice President Cristian D’Amico.
The club’s stadium is named after the coach and Bielsa has returned the honor with $2. 5 million that was used to build a hotel for players to prepare for matches.
The return of “El Loco” in Rosario is still expected. This sentiment has replaced even after their career low in 2002, when Argentine team Bielsa reached the World Cup as a favorite and left with a disappointing outing at the organizational level.
“When he stops training,” Lunari, the former player, said, “his position on the global will be Rosario and will be close to Newell’s. “
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Associates Press editor Debora Rey in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.
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