Former Goalkeeper Coach Carlos Nicola Parts Ways with Uruguayan National Team Amidst Disagreements with Head Coach Bielsa

Former goalkeeper coach of the Uruguayan National Team Carlos Nicola (@Uruguay)

(From Montevideo, Uruguay) – In its last presentations the Uruguayan National Team has not obtained good results. In the Under 23 Olympic Qualifiers in Venezuela, Uruguay, led by Marcelo Bielsa, failed to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games. At the end of March, the senior team closed a double date of friendlies in Europe that did not leave the Argentine coach satisfied: it was a draw against the Basque Country and a defeat against the Ivory Coast.

After these results, the goalkeeping coach of the Uruguayan National Team, Carlos Nicola, stopped being one of Bielsa’s collaborators and the coordinator of the goalkeepers of the youth teams of the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF). This Monday was his last day at the Celeste Complex, the training site of the celestial team, as reported by the 100% Deporte program on Sport 890. He had been working there for 12 years.

The reason for the collaborator’s departure has its genesis in a clause that Bielsa tried to establish. When the Argentine arrived, in May 2023, he assured that he intended that all his assistants in the sports area that he did not know have a three-month trial period, reported the sports newspaper Ovación.

Some of the collaborators were not satisfied with this request from the Argentine coach, but Nicola initially accepted the position, although he had signed a contract until the 2026 World Cup in Mexico. But when the period passed and they wanted him to sign a contract again for three months, Nicola did not agree. I agree. The goalkeeper coach did not take well having to be evaluated again, according to information from the Uruguayan media.

Nicola had a cordial relationship with Bielsa: they were “you” and the exchange in general was through the director of National Teams, Jorge Giordano. They had several heads-up and the assistant – former Nacional goalkeeper – shared his opinions. It seemed that Bielsa was satisfied with his performance.

After his initial rejection, and encouraged by third parties, Nicola reconsidered the possibility of re-signing for three months. They convinced him to sign, but it was too late: Bielsa had not liked the first no and his subsequent indecision. The Argentine did not see it convenient for him to continue working for the Uruguayan National Team and Giordano, then, executed his departure.

The AUF will inform in the coming days of Nicola’s departure and will appoint a new goalkeeper coach, reported the Referí portal. He could be one of the officials who works in the youth teams or a professional proposed by Bielsa, but the truth is that the intention is for him to be announced in the coming days so that he is working in the Copa América.

Nicola is the first sports official to leave the national team since Marcelo Bielsa led it, but not the first worker to leave the Celeste Complex due to differences with the Argentine coach.

In August 2023, another short circuit occurred in the Uruguayan senior team. Carlos Pagani, who was responsible for the Celeste Complex since 2011, resigned from his job at the AUF. The differences with the coach were related to some modifications in the infrastructure of the Uruguayan teams’ training facility.

Marcelo Bielsa, at the press conference in San Sebastián. (EFE/Juan Herrero)

Since Bielsa was in Uruguay, a series of works were carried out with which Pagani did not agree. The Argentinian’s sister, who is an architect, was in charge of the modifications.

These works did not manage to increase the square meters of construction, although they forced a new internal operation within the Celeste Complex. Work methodologies were added that Pagani did not agree with and that motivated him to resign.

The property has 10 hectares, it has five fields with regulatory measurements (four of them with natural grass and one with synthetic grass).

With this departure, only two officials from the period in which Óscar Tabárez was in charge of the Uruguayan teams remained in the complex.

2024-05-01 14:41:00
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