The Insatiable Appetite of Jorge Sampaoli
If you’ve never watched a team coached by Jorge Sampaoli or don’t even know who Jorge Sampaoli is then there is a story about him you need to hear for you to truly understand the way he coaches and the way his teams play.
You see, Sampaoli didn’t take the usual path to professional management. The most common path to becoming a manager at the highest level of football is usually something like this: You play professionally, you retire, whatever your last club was most likely gives you a job at the youth team level while you complete your coaching badges, you pay your dues for a few years, and then you get a chance managing the senior team. Sampaoli’s road to management was nothing like that.
When Sampaoli was a young player in Rosario, he suffered a severe leg injury that ended his playing career at the age of 19. His love of the game was so strong a future in management was likely in the cards anyway, but the injury meant he had to skip a gigantic step in that process and begin learning to be a manager before he had even fully learned to be a player.
Fast forward about 16 years and Sampaoli is coaching local, small-time clubs in Rosario while working as a bank teller to pay mortgage. One game, he gets barred from the stadium by the authorities, and this is when you get a real idea of who Sampaoli is and what he is about, because instead of taking the afternoon off and leaving his team to fend for themselves, he climbs a tree outside of the stadium and coaches the team from there. That is the kind of drive that pushes Jorge Sampaoli.
Now that you know that story, find videos to watch of Sampaoli’s past teams. Be it the Chilean National Team or Universidad de Chile (you are unlikely to find any games from his time in Peru or Ecuador, I’ve tried) and pay close attention to the way his teams play. I’m not referring to the formation or positional structure or the way they create overloads on the wings and build up play from the back, because those things require a separate piece. Look at the intensity, the drive, the absolute refusal to be intimidated and the apparent desire to rip the opponent’s heart out while it’s still beating. In his teams you see Sampaoli’s insatiable appetite for success and refusal to quit, the same two things that allowed him to trudge up a ladder of success for the past two decades that many of his colleagues in Europe know nothing about.
Now that Sampaoli has finally arrived in Europe, his managerial ability will face its toughest task. His success in Chile is undoubtedly incredible and deserving of respect, but the managers he faced at the international level are a step down from much of the competition at club level. Add to the fact he has taken a job in Sevilla, fresh off of three consecutive Europa League trophies and competing in the best league in the world, and the pressure is piled on Sampaoli to shake up the balance of power in Spain. Luckily for Sampaoli, the odds have been stacked against him his whole life. He’s right in his comfort zone.
