Part 1 | Diego Pablo Simeone
The Beginnings
Diego Pablo Simeone, or “El Cholo”, as he is commonly referred to was born on the 28th of April 1970. He grew up in a middle-class family home situated within the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Buenos Aires is a multicultural city, home to multiple ethnic backgrounds and religious groups. It is a city that has a particular cosmopolitan feeling to it. In addition to Spanish, several languages are spoken within the cities borders — all of these factors contribute to its culture and its love affair with the world game.
Diego grew up a Racing Club fan. Racing, a club, which is steeped in history, is also known within the city walls as “La Academia”. This is due to the amount of homegrown talent that the club has produced over the years — Claudia Ubeda, Agustín Cejas, Juan Carlos Cárdenas, Juan José Pizzuti and more Adrián Jesús Bastía, Diego Milito.
To truly understand the making of Diego’s, phenomenal football mind we must pay homage to his playing career and the environment that shaped him.
His nickname ‘Cholito’ or ‘El Cholo’ was given to him by a former youth coach who likened a young Diego to an old Boca & Argentinian player who carried a similar last name, and who had a similar playing style. It was his energetic play, tenacity and a will to win that led a young Diego to breaking into the first team with Vélez Sarsfield — one of Argentina’s biggest clubs.
Clasura to Italy.
Diego played for Velez over 70 times before he was offered an opportunity to join A.C Pisa in Italy. Mircea Lucescu, then coach and now the coach of Zenit St Petersburg, was a massive fan of the tenacity that Simeone brought to his midfield.
Unfortunately Pisa could not fight off relegation and lacked the quality to get back the next season from Serie B. Diego was a regular with Pisa, earning over 55 appearances in his two years in Italy before moving to La Liga with Sevilla.
Italy to La Liga.
While at Sevilla, he partnered with another Argentina, Diego Maradona. Maradona was only with Sevilla for one season — which was a season of hope — before his time ultimately ended in a disastrous fall out with the Sevilla President. Maradona’s missing year at Sevilla is an incredible story to itself, covered by COPA90 (see link below) His move to Sevilla culminated in him becoming an Argentinian national team regular in the run up to the 1994 World Cup.
At Sevilla, this was the stepping stone a young Diego needed. In the summer of 1996, Diego moved to the club that now treats him as a god, Atletico Madrid.
While at Madrid, under Rene Antic, Atléti won the league and cup double, which was the clubs first double in their history. This ignited interest from Italy, where Diego would have a successful second stint in Serie A, with both Lazio & Internationale.
He went on to achieve significant honours during these years in Serie A winning the Scudetto, UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italia. In 1998, he returned to Atléti for two seasons, before ending his playing career, with his boyhood club, Racing Club.
During Diego’s playing career, he had the honour of wearing the blue and white of Argentina no less than 106 times, while scoring 11 goals. In club football, he had a combined total club appearance of 513 games scoring 86 goals.
His personal mantra as a coach — one which both current and past players testify to — is his incessant speeches that culminate in one single sentiment, “WIN WIN WIN”. As a player he won seven club titles, four international titles, and was named La Liga Trofeo in 1995–1996 with Atléti.
One of the best quotes to describe his playing style was given to us by the man himself — when asked how he would describe his winning style during the 1996 Season at the Vicente Calderon, he replied with “a man playing with a knife between his teeth”. This perfectly sums up his passion and vigour when on the field.
Read about Diegos Coaching career at www.advancedareaactions.com
