UA mark of other times, of other cultures, of other ways of understanding the management of a club. A trace that transcends borders, that resists the urgency of the results and that, far from being erased, is perpetuated over time. A figure capable of becoming the most accurate metonymy to refer to Atlético de Madrid. A heritage work of football history. A legacy that reserves a place for eternity in the world Olympus of coaches. Diego Pablo Simeone no longer belongs to the world of the earthly, but lives with the condition of legend. But live, without any insurmountable barrier that allows you to venture limits in your path.
The 613 games with which he surpassed last Saturday Luis Aragones not only convert Cholo in the man with more appearances on the bench of the Atlético, but also in the coach who has been in charge of a Spanish team the most times. In fact, a week before he had also pulverized another record of a myth from our League as Miguel Muñozbeating (curiously in his house in the Santiago Bernabeu) his record of 424 games led consecutively to the same team, the Real Madrid in his case, in the domestic championship.
With no coaches to shadow him in Spain in terms of matches leading his team (despite the fact that some, like Miguel Muñoz himself, have enjoyed a longer period of 15 years), Simeone’s records make it necessary to look for comparable cases. on an international level. Diving back in time and going back even to the 19th century, barely 22 appear on the entire continent (except Guy Roux in it Auxerre, Valery Lobanovsky in it Dynamo of Kiev y Thomas Schaaf in it Werder Bremen they all developed their long careers in English, Scottish or Irish teams) as representative as El Cholo del Atlético is today.
It seems unthinkable that one day he could come close to the 1,612 games in which he Wiliam Maley led to Celtic de Glasgow throughout 43 years of the first half of the 20th century, although neither did anyone imagine that Simeone could revive a club recently eliminated from the Cup by a Second B and lead it to discuss titles to Real Madrid and Barcelonacaressing the Champions along the way, during the 11 years in which he has placed Atlético in a dimension never before known.
Eleven years transforming the history of Atlético
It is also far away top ten of technicians who exceed 1,000 matches in the same club. However, leading by his own example, quality is much more valuable than quantity. Hence, although his eight titles (two Leagues, one Cup, two Europa League, two European Super Cups and one from Spain) are surpassed by the 38 of Alex Ferguson in it Manchester UnitedLobanovski’s 30 at Dinamo kyiv or the 17 of Arsene Wenger in it Arsenalthe day to day (game by game) that acts as Cholo’s engine and that explains his longevity in office throws a 58.5% win rate that allows him to address the biggest ones. In fact, based on the percentage of wins, the Argentine would occupy the fifth place in it Olympus to which it has risen.
He knows well what it means (he has also suffered it), the most successful technician that Arsenal has known. After 1,235 games behind him (57.2% wins) and 22 years implanting his everlasting stamp, Arsene Wenger would direct his last two games in continental competition regretting how Simeone deprived him of the eighteenth trophy that would have been the perfect finishing touch to his career after eliminate him from the semifinals of the Europa League 2018 that would end up in the showcases of Atlético.
“It’s a great achievement, I congratulate. He commitment and the regularity It is the most difficult thing in the elite”, says the current FIFA development director after verifying how Cholo’s career already swells the encyclopedia of most relevant coaches on the football planet.
A roofless climb into eternity
Convinced since he began his career on the bench that one day he would receive the call from the club that had already struck a chord with him as a player, with the same passion with which that January 7, 2012 laid the first stone in The Rose Gardenguided by the feeling that roots him with the most passionate of fans, without losing an iota of energy to continue collecting happiness, and happy to be in the place where he only wants to be is how Simeone has built the enormous work with It has been implanted in Atlético (in the more than 80 years prior to its messianic landing the rojiblancas showcases barely had 23 trophies) the habit and the mentality of winning.
And of course, without looking beyond a tomorrow in which, for the time being, he will also surpass the record holder of the BundesligaThomas Schaaf, in yet another example that his game by game is world legend.
