Diego Simeone: “I can be a bad coach, but I’m sure not a fool”

More than one experience in his football career. Diego Simeone is one of the most representative coaches in the world of football. The Argentine gave statements for ‘El País’ telling what Atlético de Madrid means, his experience as a player and as a DT, as well as more human and personal aspects.

Despite having gone through several teams, the ‘Cholo’ considered that as a player people always associated him with Atlético de Madrid: “I have been counting since I came to Atlético as a player. He came from Seville having had a good time. And here, out of nowhere, people began to love me without my having given them anything. My first season was irregular, like that of the team or the club, which came from a moment of difficulty. We were saved from the descent there in Seville. From the second season we formed a great group and we achieved that double. Then he played for Inter, for Lazio and every time he returned to Spain, he would listen to people saying ‘there goes Cholo, Atlético.’ People associated me with Atleti ”.

Now as a coach, the Argentine maintained that he knows how to listen to the players and that “It’s not weak at all”: “I always open up to listen to their needs, to listen to what they see, but then I decide. If I have something, it is because I am not a fool ”.

“I can be a bad coach, but I’m sure not a fool and I look for the path that takes me faster. Bielsa, who was very structured, whose movements were highly mechanized, commented that his greatest pride was that the player entered the field and did something that he decided for himself. Mechanization generates a stimulus to repeat things and that is where the other ‘you’ has to appear and add it to what the coaches say “Simeone added.

Diego and his love for football

“Superfutbolero”, This is how he described his father, with whom he grew up loving football. “My father is grown up now. He is 77 years old, but he played until 73-74, already slower, obviously. Later he was the coach of his friends and today he is my biggest critic. 95 percent of the conversations are about soccer. It brings us closer “, said the DT ‘rojiblanco’.