Bielsa: Marcelo Alberto (Marcelo)

2018-Current (Manager Details)

Born Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina on 21st July 1955, a birthplace that is shared with Che Guevara and Lionel Messi and is situated 180 miles inland from the capital, Buenos Aires in the state of Santa Fe. He started playing for the City's main Football club, Newell's Old Boys from an early age and chose football as his career rather than follow his family tradition in the legal profession. He signed professional in 1976 and advanced to the club's first team, playing in central defence where he could use his six foot height to good effect and had made twenty-five appearances, before he joined Instituto AC of Cordoba at the start of the 1978-79 season. He played ten games for them but returned to Rosario to play for Club Atletico Argentino de Rosario in the 1979-80 season. But, after scoring once in thirty appearances, he was forced to retire as a player and then looked to coaching to further his career in football. After first coaching the Newell's Old Boys reserve team he was given charge of the first team in 1990 and he masterminded them to consecutive Championships in 1991 and 1992, losing only eighteen of ninety-four games, while in charge. Having had that success he sought a bigger challenge and left Newell's Old Boys at the height of his success to join Atlas in Guadalajara, Mexico. There he initially became a club director and implemented a new recruitment network, before becoming head coach in the 1993-94 season and he laid the foundations for success by taking the club to its high place for decades as they reached the quarter-finals of the end of season play-offs.He was unable to maintain that progress and he looked for pastures new less than a month into the following season. He had won twenty-nine, drawn twenty-four and lost twenty-five of his seventy-eight games in charge. He was soon recruited by one of Mexico's leading clubs, Club America of Mexico City, whose home was the famous Azteca Stadium. They were soon impressed by his meticulous preparation and eye to detail as he used footage from all games for the past two seasons to analyse the squad in depth before he made his plans for the teams improvement. However, despite getting off to a good start, the directors insisted on him involving himself more in media work and this led to Bielsa refusing to do one-on-one interviews and a series of three defeats led to his dismissal in 1996 after winning twelve, drawing eighteen and losing ten of his forty games in charge. He returned to his native Argentina, where he took on the coaching duties at Velez Sarsfield of Buenos Aires. He led them to the Argentina National Championship, the third of his career, with a fantastic run of nineteen games undefeated. He won twenty-two, drew twelve and lost just four of his thirty-eight games in charge before he was lured to Europe by RCD Espanyol of Barcelona, Spain. He had become aware that he was under consideration for the position of coach to the national team almost as soon as he arrived in Spain and sought to leave his new club. However, RCD Espanyol refused to release him, but after just one win in the first six games, with the club in eighteenth position on the ladder, he was dismissed by the club without protest from Bielsa and replaced by Miguel Angel Brindisi. His record showed won two, drawn four and lost three of his nine games in charge. So in 1998 he became the coach of the Argentinian National team, succeeding Daniel Passarella after Argentina had been eliminated in the quarter-final of the 1998 World Cup. He met with little success initially in his six year reign. Argentina qualified for the 2002 World Cup Finals in Korea/Japan, but were drawn in Group F, the so called group of death, which also contained England, Nigeria and Sweden. They defeated Nigeria 1-0 in Ibaraki, thanks to a second half strike from Gabriel Batistuta, but lost to a David Beckham penalty in Sapporo against England. So they needed a win in their final group game, but an eighty-eighth minute equaliser by Hernan Crespo to a fifty-ninth minute opener from Magnus Svensson, to secure a 1-1 draw with Sweden in Miyagi, was not enough as both England and Sweden finished on five points to advance to the next round. Mauricio Pochettino was one of his mainstays in defence in that team. Two years later he did taste success when they finished runners-up in the Copa America to Brazil by the narrowest of margins. After Kily Gonzalez had given them the lead from the spot after twenty minutes, Luisao equalised on the stroke of half-time. Cesar Delgado restored Argentina's lead with just three minutes left on the clock, only for Adriano to level once more after three minutes of stoppage time. The game went to penalties in which Brazil scored in all four attempts but Argentina had missed two and had to concede defeat. The same year they did taste victory when they gained the Gold Medal at the Olympic games in Athens and once again Bielsa, on 15th September 2004, left while at the top, having won forty-two, drawn sixteen and lost ten of his sixty-eight games in charge. He was appointed national coach of Chile on 11th July 2007, taking over a national team that had twice failed to qualify for the final stages in the two most recent competitions. He built up that country to be second in the South American qualifying stages, just one point behind top side Brazil, better on goal difference than third team Paraguay, and five points better than fourth qualifier Argentina, who they beat for the first time. They were also nine better than fifth team Uruguay and ten or more better off than other sides, Ecauador, Columbia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru. Drawn in Group H of the Finals in South Africa, they led the group after two 1-0 wins over Honduras and Switzerland and had already qualified before being beaten 1-2 in the third and final game by Spain, who finished leaders by one goal difference. This meant they had to face Brazil and were defeated by 0-3 to be eliminated. He became extremely popular in his adopted country but walked out on the position, on 4th February 2011 after Chile's President Harold Mayne-Nicholls, and the person behind his appointment lost an election to Jorge Segovia. He had presided over thirty-four wins, twelve draws and twenty defeats in his sixty-six game reign. He returned to club football when, on 7th July 2011, when he became coach of Athletic Club Bilbao of Spain. It was the first time that a European Club had been influenced by his imaginative approach to football. He took the team to tenth position in the League, well in touch with all but Real Madrid and Barcelona, the runaway leaders of that League, who both qualified for the UEFA Champions League. Third placed Valencia, also qualified for that competition and while fourth placed Malaga had the chance to qualify via the play-offs. Fifth and sixth clubs Atletico Madrid and Levante qualified for the Europa League. They were joined by Athletic Club Bilbao, who qualified as defeated Copa del Rey finalists after the 3-0 victors, Barcelona could not take that spot as they had already qualified for the Champions League. However, in the 2011-12 Europa League Bilbao had progressed to the Group stage when Turkish side Trabzonspor withdrew from the competition and then headed their section, which comprised Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg, French side Paris Saint-Germain, and Slovakian team Slovan Bratislava with thirteen points. In the knock out stage they needed an away goal rule decision to eliminate Lokomotiv Moscow after both teams had each won their home tie. In the Round of sixteen they faced Manchester United and gave a master-class performance humbling them by wining both at home and at Old Trfford. 3-2 away and 2-1 at home to advance to the last eight. A 4-2 away win all but ensured further progress, which they duly completed with a 2-2 home daw to eliminate German side Schalke 04. In the semi-final they lost the away fixture 1-2 against Sporting CP of Lisbon but a 3-1 home win took them into the final. In the final they were outplayed by fellow Spaniards Atheletico Madrid, losing 0-3 in Bucharest. In his second season, after early promise, deteriorated and although they defeated Slaven Belupo 4-3 on aggregate and HJK Helsinki 9-3 on aggregate to advance to the Group Stage in the Europa League, they fared badly being a poor third to Lyon on twelve points and Sparta Prague on nine points, as they acculated just five points, with Israeli side Ironi Kiryat Schmona on just two. The Copa Del Rey was equally woeful as the fell to Eibar on the away goals rule in the First Round. In the final League standings they were twelfth on forty-five points and the club allowed Bielsa's contract to expire and parted company on 30th June 2013 having won 43, drawn thirty-one and lost thirty -eight of the one hundred and tweve games he was in charge. He next became coach of Olympique de Marseille on 17th May 2014 and, after being the leader of the race for the Ligue Une title for fourteen games, they faded to become fourth in the final standings. After losing the first game of the 2015-16, with a year still remaining on his contract, he resigned on 8th August 2014 and returned to Argentina, having won twenty-one, drawn seven and lost thirteen of the forty-one games of his time there. His next appointment lasted only two days. He was appointed coach of Italian team, Lazio, on 6th July 2016 and on 8th July 2016 he resigned after Lazio did not fulfill their transfer promises made during contract negotiations. He joined French team Lille Olympique Sporting Club on 24 May 2017, seemingly with a treasure chest to buy the players and set up the club infrastructure of his choice to ensure the club's success. However the team he produced did not have the ability or flair of a team normally associated with Bielsa and were soon struggling in the lower reaches of Ligue Une. Matters came to head when he made an unauthorised trip to see an hospitalised friend in Argentina and the club suspended him in November 2017. He was fired on 15th December 2017, having won five, drawn five and lost nine of the nineteen games under his control. He arrived at Elland Road on 15th June 2018 to replace Paul Heckingbottom as head coach to the ringing endorsement of many international players that had benefited from his tutelage and acknowledged leading coaches, who endorsed him as being their inspiration and mentor and the world's best coach. With minimal addition and much diminishing of the playing staff inherited from Heckingbottom he set about building a new infrastructure and playing system at the club, and after eight games the team leads the Championship race with an undefeated five wins and two draws. The only defeat coming in the almost meaningless League Cup with a much weakened team.