Diego Simeone

Diego Pablo Simeone (born 28 April 1970) is an Argentine football former player who is currently manager of Spanish La Liga club Atlético de Madrid. He was capped over 100 times for the Argentina national football team and represented the country at the 1994, 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups.

When Simeone was 14, his youth coach Victorio Spinetto nicknamed him Cholo as his energetic play reminded him of former Boca Juniors player and Argentine international Carmelo Simeone (no relation) who had that nickname.^[1]

In his club career that started in 1987, Simeone played for Vélez Sarsfield, Pisa, Sevilla, Atlético Madrid, Internazionale, Lazio and Racing.

Club career

After starting his career with Vélez Sarsfield, Simeone moved to Italian Serie A club Pisa in 1990. The club was relegated in his first season and, after it failed to gain promotion the following year, Simeone was sold to Sevilla in the Spanish Primera Liga. Simeone played two seasons in Seville, after which he was signed by Atlético de Madrid. At Atlético he was part of the team which won the double of the Liga title and Copa del Rey during the 1995–96 season.

In 1997, Simeone returned to Serie A with Internazionale and played two full seasons, winning the 1997–98 UEFA Cup in a side spearheaded by Ronaldo up front. In 1999, Simeone joined fellow Argentines Néstor Sensini, Matías Almeyda, Hernán Crespo and Juan Sebastián Verón at Sven Göran Eriksson's Lazio. The side had gone close to the Scudetto in the season before Simeone's arrival and he helped deliver the championship after a gruelling season where Juventus led the standings by two points going into the last day. A Juve loss at rainy Perugia coupled with Lazio's comfortable home win over Reggina at the Stadio Olimpico ensured Simeone's first Serie A title. After winning the double in Spain he would then add the Italian double as Lazio edged out Inter to claim the 1999–2000 Coppa Italia.

He went on to play three more seasons in Rome which included more last day drama as a Simeone goal against former club Inter on the last day of the 2001–02 campaign effectively ruined his old employers' title dream.

Simeone returned to Atlético in 2003 and played two more seasons before leaving Europe to return to Argentina with Racing.

International career

For the Argentine team, Simeone amassed 106 caps,^[2] the first coming in 1988. Simeone won the 1991 and 1993 editions of the Copa América with Argentina. He played in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cups. He was a member of the team that won the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, as one of the three over-23 players allowed per squad. As a midfielder, Simeone scored 11 goals for his country, including one in the final of the 1992 Confederations Cup.

During the 1998 World Cup, England's David Beckham was sent off for kicking Simeone in retaliation for a foul (see also Argentina and England football rivalry). Simeone later admitted to simulating the injury from the kick, in order to get Beckham sent off.^[3] Sports Illustrated was critical of the Argentinians' theatrics in that incident, stating that Simeone first delivered a "heavy-handed challenge" on Beckham and then "fell like a ton of bricks" when Beckham retaliated.^[4] In the following match, against the Netherlands, Simeone was injured by a tackle from Arthur Numan during his team's defeat.^[5]

In the 2002 World Cup, his last, Argentina was eliminated in the group stage, which included a 1–0 loss to England where Beckham converted a penalty. Simeone once described his style as "holding a knife between his teeth".^{[citation needed]} Simeone admitted to being "embarrassed" at having surpassed Diego Maradona as Argentina's most capped player (he has since been surpassed by Roberto Ayala and Javier Zanetti).^{[citation needed]}

Managerial career

Simeone ended his playing career for Racing, playing his last match on February 17, 2006, and then became manager for the same team. After a rough start, the team made an impressive finish in the 2006 Clausura. When ownership of the club changed hands, Simeone left Racing in May 2006 and was replaced with Reinaldo Merlo. On May 18, he became head coach of Estudiantes de La Plata and soon led them to their first League title in 23 years after defeating Boca Juniors 2–1 in a final match played December 13, 2006. In an October 2006 poll in the sports daily Ole, Simeone was voted as the best manager in the Argentine league.^[6] He was also praised as a "born manager" by former Argentine international Roberto Perfumo.^[7] Simeone left Estudiantes after the end of the 2007 Apertura, where Estudiantes was not a contender after a bad start, but had a strong finish of nine lossless games. On December 15, 2007 Simeone was unveiled as the new River Plate coach, succeeding Daniel Passarella. The contract was reported to be a year long, starting on January 3, 2008.^[8] After an early elimination in the Copa Libertadores losing to San Lorenzo in the second round, Simeone and River Plate went on to win the 2008 Clausura championship after beating Olimpo 2–1 in the Monumental.^[9] On November 7, 2008 Simeone announced his resignation as coach of River Plate after their elimination at the Quarter-final stage of Copa Sudamericana 2008 by the Mexican team Chivas and a poor run of form of 11 domestic games without a win which left them bottom of the Primera División Argentina with only six games remaining.^[10][11] On April 15, 2009 Simeone joined San Lorenzo to replace Miguel Angel Russo, following the club's exit in the first round of Copa Libertadores 2009.^[12] On April 3, 2010 the coach quit San Lorenzo due poor results and mounting criticism.^[13] On January 19, 2011, Simeone flew to Sicily to join Serie A side, Catania, replacing Marco Giampaolo who left the club just hours earlier.^[14][15] On June 1, 2011, he left his post after helping Catania stave off relegation.^[16] On June 21, 2011, Simeone was named as the new coach of Racing Club for a second spell in charge, replacing Miguel Ángel Russo who had resigned the prior week.^[17]

On December 23, 2011, Simeone was unveiled as the new Atlético Madrid coach, succeeding Gregorio Manzano. On May 9, 2012, Simeone won the UEFA Europa League with Atlético Madrid beating Athletic Bilbao 3–0. On August 31, 2012 he won UEFA Super Cup with same team beating Chelsea 4–1, earning his first two European trophies. On May 17, 2013, he won the Copa del Rey with Atletico Madrid beating Real Madrid 2-1.^[18] Simeone led the team to a 3rd place finish in 2012-13 La Liga, the club's best finish in the competition since 1996.

Career statistics

Club career statistics

^[19]

International career statistics

^[20]

Managerial statistics

As of 5 February 2014.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Racing		February 2006	May 2006	700114000000000000014	70005000000000000005	70003000000000000003	70006000000000000006	700135710000000000035.71
Estudiantes		May 2006	December 2007	700160000000000000060	700134000000000000034	700115000000000000015	700111000000000000011	700156670000000000056.67
River Plate		December 2007	November 2008	700144000000000000044	700120000000000000020	700112000000000000012	700112000000000000012	700145450000000000045.45
San Lorenzo		April 2009	April 2010	700148000000000000048	700121000000000000021	70009000000000000009	700118000000000000018	700143750000000000043.75
Catania		19 January 2011	1 June 2011	700118000000000000018	70007000000000000007	70003000000000000003	70008000000000000008	700138890000000000038.89
Racing		21 June 2011	December 2011	700120000000000000020	70008000000000000008	700110000000000000010	70002000000000000002	700140000000000000040.00
Atlético Madrid		23 December 2011	Present	7002124000000000000124	700182000000000000082	700124000000000000024	700118000000000000018	700166130000000000066.13
Total				7002328000000000000328	7002177000000000000177	700176000000000000076	700175000000000000075	700153960000000000053.96

Honours

Player

Atlético Madrid

• La Liga (1): 1995–96
• Copa del Rey (1): 1995–96

Internazionale

• UEFA Cup (1): 1997–98

Lazio

• Serie A (1): 1999–2000
• Coppa Italia (1): 1999–2000
• Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2000
• UEFA Super Cup (1): 1999

Argentina

• Copa América (2): 1991, 1993
• FIFA Confederations Cup (1): 1992
• Artemio Franchi Trophy (1): 1993
• Olympic Silver Medal (1): 1996

Manager

Estudiantes

• Argentine Primera División (1): Torneo Apertura 2006

River Plate

• Argentine Primera División (1): Torneo Clausura 2008

Atlético Madrid

• Copa del Rey (1): 2012–13
• UEFA Europa League (1): 2011–12
• UEFA Super Cup (1): 2012

See also

• List of UEFA Cup and Europa League winning managers

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Diego Simeone.

• Profile and Statistics at yahoo.com
• Diego Simeone at National-Football-Teams.com
• (Spanish) Managerial statistics in the Argentine Primera
• (Spanish) Futbol Factory profile (Archived)

Argentina squads v t e Argentina squad – 1991 Copa América Winners (13th Title) 1 Goycochea 2 Vázquez 3 Enrique 4 Basualdo 5 Astrada 6 Ruggeri (c) 7 Caniggia 8 Franco 9 Batistuta 10 Simeone 11 Latorre 12 Lanari 13 Gamboa 14 Craviotto 15 Altamirano 16 García 17 Zapata 18 Medina Bello 19 Mohamed 20 Rodríguez 21 Giunta 22 Cancelarich Coach: Basile v t e Argentina squad – 1992 King Fahd Cup Winners (1st Title) 1 Goycochea 2 Vázquez 3 Altamirano 4 Basualdo 5 Redondo 6 Ruggeri (c) 7 Caniggia 8 Villarreal 9 Batistuta 10 Simeone 11 Cagna 12 Islas 14 Acosta 15 Borelli 16 García 18 Craviotto 20 Rodríguez 21 Cancelarich Coach: Basile v t e Argentina squad – 1993 Copa América Winners (14th Title) 1 Goycochea 2 Vázquez 3 Altamirano 4 F.Basualdo 5 Redondo 6 Ruggeri (c) 7 Medina Bello 8 Franco (J.Basualdo) 9 Batistuta 10 Simeone 11 Gorosito 12 Islas 13 Cáceres 14 Craviotto 15 Borelli 16 García 17 Zapata 18 Acosta 19 Zamora 20 Rodríguez 21 Scoponi 22 Mancuso Coach: Basile v t e Argentina squad – 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 Goycochea 2 Vázquez 3 Chamot 4 Sensini 5 Redondo 6 Ruggeri 7 Caniggia 8 Basualdo 9 Batistuta 10 Maradona (c) 11 Medina Bello 12 Islas 13 Cáceres 14 Simeone 15 Borelli 16 Díaz 17 Ortega 18 Pérez 19 Balbo 20 Rodríguez 21 Mancuso 22 Scoponi Coach: Basile v t e Argentina squad – 1995 Copa América 1 Cristante 2 Ayala 3 Chamot 4 Zanetti 5 Pérez 6 Cáceres 7 Balbo 8 Simeone 9 Batistuta 10 Gallardo 11 Berti 12 Bossio 13 Altamirano 14 Schürrer 15 Fabbri 16 Astrada 17 Escudero 18 Espina (c) 19 Ortega 20 Acosta 21 Borrelli 22 Burgos Coach: Passarella v t e Argentina men's football squad – 1996 Summer Olympics – Silver Medalists 1 Cavallero 2 Ayala 3 Chamot 4 Zanetti 5 Almeyda 6 Sensini 7 C. López 8 Simeone (c) 9 Crespo 10 Ortega 11 Delgado 12 Morales 13 Bossio 14 Paz 15 Bassedas 16 Pineda 17 G. López 18 Gallardo Coach: Passarella v t e Argentina squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Roa 2 Ayala 3 Chamot 4 Pineda 5 Almeyda 6 Sensini 7 C. López 8 Simeone (c) 9 Batistuta 10 Ortega 11 Verón 12 Burgos 13 Paz 14 Vivas 15 Astrada 16 Berti 17 Cavallero 18 Balbo 19 Crespo 20 Gallardo 21 Delgado 22 Zanetti Coach: Passarella v t e Argentina squad – 1999 Copa América 1 Burgos 2 Ayala 3 Sorín 4 Ibarra 5 Simeone (c) 6 Samuel 7 Barros Schelotto 8 Zanetti 9 Palermo 10 Ortega 11 López 12 Bizzarri 13 Vivas 14 Pochettino 15 Berizzo 16 Guglielminpietro 17 Husaín 18 Cagna 19 Calderón 20 Aimar 21 González 22 Riquelme Coach: Bielsa v t e Argentina squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Burgos 2 Ayala 3 Sorín 4 Pochettino 5 Almeyda 6 Samuel 7 C. López 8 Zanetti 9 Batistuta 10 Ortega 11 Verón (c) 12 Cavallero 13 Placente 14 Simeone 15 Husaín 16 Aimar 17 G. López 18 K. González 19 Crespo 20 Gallardo 21 Caniggia 22 Chamot 23 Bonano Coach: Bielsa