The same as ever

As Marcelo Bielsa says, success distorts us.

I believe that, so I make sure that I am clear about the objectives I am pursuing and where I have come from.

Starting out as a coach, I had something of a handicap: I had not been a professional footballer. I was not part of the world of professional football.

The closest I had been to football’s elite came during the first year of my coaching course. Back then, I was very excited by the way Bielsa’s Athletic Club played. I particularly remember their match against Manchester United at Old Trafford in 2012, which was a Europa League last-16 game.

I was so thrilled by that match that I decided to travel from Argentina to Bilbao to see the final of that season’s Copa del Rey, in which Bielsa’s team would face Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. The only problem was that to pay for the ticket I would need to sell my motorbike. I had a decision to make, but I opted for the trip. 

One of the people I travelled with to Spain knew Claudio Vivas, who was Bielsa’s assistant at the time. Three nights before the final, Claudio contacted us and we were invited for dinner at his house. He was really good to us. Not only did he give us tickets for the match against Barcelona, but he also gave us access to the training sessions before the game.

When I became a qualified coach the following year, I was aware that to start working in Argentina I would need help. And I was lucky enough to receive it from Francisco Berscé. He had been my teacher at the coaching school and worked for Independiente de Avellaneda in Argentina’s fifth division. At that time, I had a printing business. During the coaching course, Francisco asked me to print a book of invoices for him.

“I felt I had to make the biggest decision of my life: the printing house or football?”

A year later, there was a moment that changed everything for me. I always say that, in life, nothing happens by chance. So it was that Francisco contacted me to ask if I could reprint the invoice book. I agreed and told him to come by a few days later to pick it up.

That day, while I was supervising the arrival of a new machine for the printing press – which had cost a fortune – I saw Francisco coming to pick up the invoices. At that moment, I felt I had to make the biggest decision of my life: the printing house or football?

It was a decision I made in a second. I forgot about printing and that expensive machine – my sister took care of it – and went to talk to him.

I offered to film training sessions, set up cones or anything that would bring me closer to my passion for football. Two days later, Francisco told me that Independiente had agreed I could come in, but that it would be an unpaid role. It didn’t matter to me. A door was opening for the first time.

At that time, in mid-2014, Gabriel Milito was working for Independiente’s second team. Together with Francisco, I started to analyse the reserve team’s upcoming opposition, travelling to watch games. After doing the analysis, Francisco would give Gabi a DVD of each opponent to show to his players.

It was a short-lived role, though. Gabi left Independiente and Francisco was demoted. Meanwhile, I was left without a job.

“We didn’t have a pitch to train on, so we took sessions in a park”

Luckily, soon after Francisco came along to help again. This time, he recommended me to Excursionistas in the fourth division. Taking charge of their youth team was my first job as a head coach – and it was one of the happiest of my life. I was in charge of kids who were born in 1997. They were the first players I had as a head coach, and the ones I most enjoyed coaching.

We didn’t have a pitch to train on, so we took sessions in a park 10 blocks away from the club’s facilities. We would take all the equipment and there, in the park, argue to get dog-walkers to move, or with a personal trainer to give us some space. I brought ribbons and other things to mark the ground during training sessions. We had to use a lot of creativity, and I loved that.

There were no stands at our home ground, but there was a tree. So it occurred to me that my wife could film the matches from there. Before each match I would help her to climb the tree, with a tripod and camera for filming.

I remember that, in the first few games, she didn’t feel comfortable. We even argued at home because, on some occasions, she missed a few moves. The arguments didn’t last long, though – my wife has always been, and is, so vital to everything I have done.

I was very happy at Excursionistas, but 18 months later Independiente came back into my life and I couldn’t say no. Gabi took over the first team in mid-2016 and invited Francisco to join the coaching staff. He, in turn, put forward my name to be an analyst.

Gabi gave me the chance to work in professional football for the first time, and opened my mind a lot. I liked positional football, and he had played for five years in a team that was the mother of positional football: Guardiola’s Barcelona. He brought all of that with him. Talking to Gabi on a day-to-day basis, and seeing how he planned games, was a bit like being with Guardiola.

“I have always been a bit of a bold decision-maker, believing in myself and trusting that something will happen”

When my time at Independiente came to an end, I went with Francisco to be his assistant at Atlanta, a club in the third tier of Argentinian football. There we had to put together a project from scratch, where the idea was to start to compete with young players. We went through the reserves of several Primera División clubs and put together a team that ended up being promoted the following year – albeit by then without us in charge.

At the end of the 2017/18 season, I had told Francisco that I wanted to start my career as a coach or leave Argentina. I felt that football there was not compatible with who I was. The tenure for a coach there is very short, and it is very difficult to find work if you have never been a professional footballer. 

I have always been a bit of a bold decision-maker, believing in myself and trusting that something will happen. So next, in March 2018, I travelled to Ecuador. There, through people I knew – such as Hernán Pellerano at Independiente de Avellaneda and Juan Martínez at Atlanta – I got to meet several coaches. That included Roberto Olabe, who had been head of sporting strategy at Independiente del Valle.

During that meeting, I showed Olabe moves I used in the teams I had worked with. One caught his attention: the number eight goes back to the double pivot to create space and, if he manages to do so, the full-back has to move into the number-eight position. If he doesn’t, it is because he is free to play a 2v1 against the opposing midfielder. In short, it is about finding space when the defensive lines are very close together.

Olabe grabbed his iPad and started drawing moves and discussing things with me. Nothing concrete came out of that talk at that moment, but it would lead to doors opening. Just like the meeting I had with Jorge Célico, who was director of national youth teams in Ecuador. He had worked at Universidad Católica and told me there was an opportunity to coach the reserve team there. 

I had a fantastic experience at Católica in the 2018/19 season. Not only in terms of football, but also living in another country, which coincided with the arrival of my first son, Lorenzo. I also had the support of Santiago Escobar, the first-team manager, who opened doors for me and treated me extraordinarily well.

“Back to square one, but much worse. I no longer had the printing business, nor anywhere to live”

At the end of the season I received two offers. One from Real Garcilaso – now known as Cusco – in Peru, and the other from Independiente del Valle in Ecuador. In Peru they offered me the chance to be head of youth football and, at the same time, coach of the reserve team. It seemed like a challenge and a very ambitious project, so I decided to accept it.

I thought I would be able to implement my methodology. However, I quickly realised that it would be impossible; after three months, I returned to Argentina. Back to square one, but much worse. I no longer had the printing business, nor anywhere to live. ThatReal Garcilasos when my mother-in-law came to our rescue and opened her home to us.

Fortunately, those hard times only lasted three months. Miguel Ángel Ramírez – who I had met via Olabe – was appointed coach of Independiente del Valle and asked me to be his assistant.

Football is like that. At the start of 2019 I was working in Peru – with everything I went through afterwards – and ended the year winning the Copa Sudamericana with Miguel. We spent two years together at Independiente del Valle before moving to Brazil, to Internacional de Porto Alegre.

Meeting Miguel and Independiente was a turning point in my career as a coach. With him I learned to be a better leader and person, while the club became my home – my second family.

When Miguel and I finished at Internacional, we went our separate ways. It took me a long time to forge my own path as a head coach, but eventually I had the feeling that I had to do it.

“Results influence and contaminate opinion. The work can be good or bad beyond the result”

My first job as a first-team head coach came at Unión La Calera in Chile. I thought we were on the right track, but had to leave in the middle of the year after several ups and downs. I will always be grateful to the club, though, for allowing me to take my first steps as a head coach in professional football.

After that experience, football gave me another surprise. Almost immediately after my departure from Chile, I returned to my Ecuador ‘home’. This time I was manager of Independiente del Valle, where we ended up winning the Copa Sudamericana against Sao Paulo in the 2022 final. Then a month later we won the Copa Ecuador, to claim two trophies in the same year.

After the Copa Sudamericana final, an answer I gave to a journalist In the post-match press conference went viral. He had told me that our game plan had been excellent. My response was that he thought this because we had won. If we had lost, perhaps he would have thought the same plan was bad.

My intention was to explain that processes or matches should not be analysed in terms of the outcome. Results influence and contaminate opinion. The work can be good or bad beyond the result.

That is why, when we lose, as coaches we are very lonely. At that moment, the people we have by our side on a day-to-day basis are vital. In my case, those people are so important to me on this journey: my wife Barbara and our two sons, Lolo and Lucca.

Whether they are far away or close by, they ensure I am always the same as ever.