MADRID —
Diego Simeone loved the way the sunlight hit the stands at the Vicente
Calderón. First as an Atlético Madrid player, and then as its manager.
Simeone took charge of Atlético a few days after Christmas in
2011. He understood, he felt, what
the club’s fans wanted, what sort of team would be in line with Atlético’s
history, its identity, what style of play would win the backing of the
Calderón.
His team would have to be built on a strong defense, a
deadly counterattack and an unyielding work ethic. Simeone, the player known as
El Cholo, was creating his own philosophy: Cholísmo. “The only thing that is
not negotiable is effort,” he told his players in their first meeting.
He and his
team have delivered on that promise. By almost any metric, Simeone’s tenure as
Atlético’s manager has been a spectacular success. The trophies
are, of course, the most obvious proof. Under Simeone, Atlético lifted the
Europa League and the European Super Cup twice, in 2012 and 2018. He won the
Copa del Rey, against Real Madrid, in 2013, and led the club to the Champions
League final in 2014 and 2016.
Most
important, of course, he led Atlético to the Spanish title in 2014. It was the club’s first championship for
almost two decades, and the first time in 10 years that a team other than
Barcelona or Real Madrid won the Spanish crown.
It is remarkable for a team that was, until recently, known for its ability to
fall at the last, for its perpetual disappointment. Atlético has long been
known, by fans and foes alike, as El Pupas: the Jinxed. The nickname does not
come up so much, these days.
Simeone is the longest-serving manager at any major club
in Europe, and at a club that until he arrived had been allergic to stability.
Before Simeone, Atlético had employed 12 coaches in a decade.
Simeone's success has wiped out the club’s soaring debts, and attracted the
kind of deep-pocketed foreign sponsors that
helped pay for a new stadium, for higher salaries, for new players. Last
summer, Atlético spent $142 million on a single player — João Felix — and a
further $100 million on strengthening the squad.
Atlético,
in other words, is no longer the poor relation: it has paid more for a player
than Real Madrid, and it reportedly pays its coach more than any team in the
world.
Atlético is
now part of Europe’s elite. The question most are asking, now, is where that
leaves the coach who took it there.
“In Cholísmo, the result is God,” the former
Argentina forward Jorge Valdano — now a columnist for El País, and one of
Spain’s most erudite soccer observers — wrote last year.
In recent
years, Simeone has lent his name to two books, in collaboration with the
journalist Santi Garcia Bustamante. Both sit more comfortably on the lifestyle
shelves than in the sports section.
In the
second, longer edition — entitled simply “Creer,” or “Believe” — Simeone
writes: “When the opposition team sense that there is fear, they take advantage
without mercy.”
Simeone
retains his aura and the faith of most of his players, though those inside the
club admit that perhaps the squad’s dynamics are suffering because so many of
his most trusted lieutenants — the likes of Diego Godín and Gabi — have
departed. His aura has not dissipated. As one player noted, Atlético is still
the sort of club where nobody is ever late for a team meeting. A year ago, the
manager extended his contract until 2022.
But there
is a feeling that change is coming. Germán Burgos, Simeone’s longstanding
assistant, is keen to start his own managerial career; it was telling that he
did not sign a new contract when Simeone did.
Atlético’s
identity is now fused with Simeone’s. It is hard to imagine one without the
other. But Simeone, for one, has never believed in his own immutability. “I
always leave before they kick me out,” he once said. “And I always believe they
can kick me out tomorrow.” After almost nine years, that moment may be coming.
From The New York Times (edited)
