Jorge Sampaoli takes his contradictions to Flamengo – 04/18/2023 – Sport

Jorge Sampaoli, 63, the new Flamengo coach, is contradictory. One of the most important coaches trained in Argentina in recent decades, he was shipwrecked in charge of his national team. He has the ability to get more than expected out of players, but he is obsessed with asking employers to spend fortunes on reinforcements.

In his passages through Brazilian clubs, before arriving in Gávea, he made a point of taking his dogs, but he spoke almost nothing to the employees of the training centers. Contrary to giving interviews, he started to appear more in the media when he started to have the project to manage Flamengo, which happened now.

He makes his debut for the Red-Black team this Wednesday (19), in a match against Ñublense (CHI), for the second round of the Libertadores group stage. Flamengo was defeated in the debut by Aucas (EQU). Result that helped to overthrow the Portuguese Vítor Pereira.

“He didn’t want to leave here at all. We almost had to expel him from the city so that he could pursue his dream of becoming a coach”, he told the Sheet in 2017 Maria Luisa Sampaoli, sister of Jorge.

“From here” is Casilda, a city of 35,000 inhabitants near Rosario, in the province of Santa Fe. In 2002, he had received an invitation to direct Juan Aurich (PER). He was so sure of failure that he took little clothes in his luggage. He never returned to live in the municipality.

Sampaoli had already built a reputation for being obsessive and attentive to every detail. When he was expelled in a match as coach of Belgrano de Arequito, a team from Liga Casildense, he did not conform. He left the field, climbed a tree outside the stadium and continued to yell instructions to the athletes. The photo, published in national newspapers, made the public see the coach’s image for the first time.

He has never managed a professional team in his country. He became famous with Universidad de Chile, winner of the 2011 Copa Sudamericana. It was when he drew attention for his offensive football, quick starts and speed, a copy of his greatest idol: Marcelo Bielsa. By replacing him in the national team, he won what was then the biggest Chilean title. He was champion of the 2015 Copa America.

His choice to save Argentina in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers was well received by local fans, but criticized by historical names.

“If Jorge Sampaoli is the solution, we need to close and rebuild Argentina’s coaching school,” complained Carlos Bilardo, the 1986 world champion.

To fulfill the prophecy he made when he worked at the Banco Province branch (“one day I will be the coach of the Argentine national team”, he said), in the center of Casilda, he left Sevilla (ESP). He seemed destined to make Messi realize his dream of becoming world champion.

It was a disaster. Sampaoli was totally subservient to his main player, even consulting him about substitution, playing him as a false 9 against France, failing to define a style of play, fighting with his assistant Sebastián Beccacece in the middle of the World Cup and the team fell into the round of 16.

Not that the bad result made him lower the crest. It almost drove Santos’ board of directors crazy when he accepted to lead the team, in 2019.

He asked President José Carlos Peres to charter a plane to take his dogs to Baixada Santista. The request was denied. But when he decided the mansion in an upscale neighborhood of the city didn’t suit him after two months, the club paid the fine to move him to another apartment. Sampaoli claimed to be afraid his dogs would drown in the pool.

It was at Vila Belmiro that he showed part of his best and worst. He led a technically limited squad to the Brazilian runner-up that year. He made Jean Mota play like he was Lionel Messi months after he made Lionel Messi play like he was Jean Mota.

Sampaoli did not allow the women’s team at Santos to train on the same field as the men’s team at CT so as not to “spoil” the pitch. He also asked for expensive reinforcements that he rarely used, such as striker Uribe. The club paid US$ 7 million (R$ 34.8 million in current values) for the Peruvian Christian Cueva. It was a fiasco. He left at the end of 2019 because the club didn’t want to give him (not least because they didn’t have) R$ 100 million for new reinforcements.

He went to Atlético Mineiro in 2020 to repeat what he showed at Santos. Make the team play good football, ask non-stop for signings and don’t talk to any club official outside your circle of close people. The board hired 14 reinforcements at an approximate cost of R$ 200 million and won the Campeonato Mineiro.

Upon leaving Minas Gerais, he began to insinuate himself to Flamengo, giving indications that he would accept the position and even appearing on television programs. Before that, he questioned the press agents of the clubs to ask if it was really necessary to give interviews.

His trajectory in Europe was irregular and without titles. When he left Sevilla in 2017, he was ranked 5th in La Liga. He angered fans upon his return to South America. At Olympique de Marseille (FRA), he left mid-contract, in 2022, due to disagreements with the direction over money for signings, an old theme. Back at Sevilla, he was sacked in February 2023 because of poor results.