The former coach of Lille and OM occupies an important place in the career of the future coach of PSG.
Marcelo Bielsa for Mauricio Pochettino? “A source of inspiration to make the decision to be a coach,” said the second named, in 2015, in the columns of El Mundo. And for good reason, “El Loco” is one of the men who helped the former Argentine defender to take the right wagon, that of football and high level. We are in 2017 when Marcelo Bielsa, then the right arm of Jorge Griffa, director of the academy of Newell’s Old Boys, crisscrossed Argentina in search of young talent. A path that would lead the two men to Murphy, Pochettino’s hometown. At the time, he was 13 years old. “They came to do some tests in a town near mine, but I couldn’t go because I was studying. A coach who knew me told them, “The best player in the area didn’t come, he’s in Murphy, a very small town.” They took the car and went to town to ask where my house was, ”he says.
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But all was not over yet. “They knocked on the door at 2 am, on a Monday in winter, it was very cold, remembers the one who is promised to the PSG bench, instead of Thomas Tuchel. My mom didn’t want to open it at first. At the end my father opened the door and invited them over for coffee. They asked if they could see the boy. My dad took them to my room, I was sleeping and Bielsa asked, “Can I see your legs? My parents discovered me and Bielsa blurted out: “What soccer legs! This is how our relationship began. ” If there was no question of Marcelo Bielsa, one might be surprised at these methods. But can we still be surprised by the old idol of the Vélodrome? “I was 13, at 14 they signed me and at 17 I made my debut for the first team,” continues Pochettino, who sees Bielsa as “one of the best coaches in the world”. Note that Pochettino played for Bielsa at Newell’s, Espanyol and in selection.
