Marcelo Bielsa at Chile: How ‘El Loco’ set La Roja up for future triumphs

• Marcelo Bielsa coached Argentina from 1998 to 2004

• The Argentine joined Chile in 2007

• Bielsa brought to the fore the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, and Gary Medel

Akshat Mehrish Marcelo ‘El Loco’ Bielsa is an unaccompanied individual in football. The Rosario native, whose professional playing career lasted just over a hundred appearances, is a unique coach and manager who lately, perhaps, has earned more fame for his brand of football than what he has accomplished with it. Flashes of his Leeds United side playing a style that was in equal parts brilliant and self-punishing stay fresh in the minds of football faithful the world over. An incomplete statement would be to suggest that Marcelo Bielsa has never achieved success with his style of play. The Argentinian first burst onto the scene by leading Newell’s Old Boys, a humble football club in his native Rosario compared to the behemoths of Buenos Aires, to domestic silverware and continental recognition. Years later, he would repeat the feat with another organisation occupying a similar echelon as Newell’s, Velez Sarsfield.

Bielsa joined the Argentina national team as the head coach in 1998 as a reward for his exploits back home and his swashbuckling philosophy. In terms of numbers, the spell as La Albiceleste’s chief tactician was El Loco’s most successful; under him, Argentina won 56 of their 85 games and lost just 11. However, for all their triumphs, the South American giants failed to win either the continental or the international cup during his star, making up for the lack of silverware only with a last-ditch Olympic Gold in 2004, an accomplishment which signalled the dawn of a new era of superstars. The tactician left in the aftermath. After three years away from football, Bielsa re-emerged in Chile in 2007. The national football federation, impressed by the coach’s ideas more than his resume, tasked him with reviving the national team’s fortunes and, hopefully, winning a cup or two! Over two decades, it has been transcribed that Marcelo Bielsa’s systems require maximum buy-in from his players: marauding runners all over the pitch, running the opposition amok in their eccentric 3-3-3-1 or 3-4-3 shape. To implement his brand successfully, the Argentinian has made a habit of trusting individuals on the younger side, more accepting of new innovations and permeable to his ideas. His spell in Chile was no different.

During his four-year stay, Bielsa brought talents such as Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Gary Medel, Mauricio Isla, Charles Aranguiz, and Eduardo Vargas to the fore, players who would form the core of the Chile national team for the subsequent decade and play a significant role in delivering the nation its first creditable success in a century. While Bielsa’s results as the Chile head coach were a mixed bag, even if the positives outweighed the negatives, not all of his contributions paid dividends in the future. Some were immediate, such as qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals and ending La Roja’s competition drought that had plagued the national set-up since 1998. In South Africa, Chile reached the last 16, a far cry from their best finish in third in the home-based 1962 edition, but, in addition to the attractive style of play, enough to keep the fans strictly on Bielsa’s side. Sadly though, Bielsa’s first participation with Chile in the FIFA World Cup would be his last. Despite La Roja faithful strongly campaigning for the Argentinian to extend his contract as the national team coach, he chose to walk away due to differences with the Chilean Football Board President-elect, Jorge Segovia. In the following years, he would turn up at clubs all over Europe, the last being Leeds in 2018.

Marcelo Bielsa’s legacy, nonetheless, endured even years after his departure. In 2015, coached by Jorge Sampaoli, a tactician many describe as a disciple of the Rosario native, playing that same attacking brand of football, and fielding the players he introduced to the national set-up, Chile won the Copa America — ironically, over Bielsa’s country of birth, Argentina. It was the first major triumph for the South American nation, but they complimented it by winning the subsequent edition in 2016. Bielsa wasn’t present for the trophy celebrations either of those years, but his fingerprints could be seen all over Chile’s success.