Gabriel Milito, the coach of Atlético Mineiro who adopted Guardiola’s frontality, left Argentinos because “his head exploded” and he can make history in the Copa Libertadores

“There are coaches who have been coaching for many years and have not won a championship. I hope I’m not one of those, but until now it was like that. You can reach a final and lose it. I accept it, but I don’t stay. “I keep looking, I keep trying,” he said. Gabriel Milito in August 2023, when he was still leading Argentinos Juniors. Fourteen months later, he is one step away from winning his second title with Atlético Mineirowhich he placed in the final of the Copa Libertadores after eliminating River in it Monumental.

Until his arrival at the club Belo Horizonteat the end of March, the Marshal had not been able to obtain a championship in a decade of work as a technical director, a very long period for a man who In September he turned only 44 years old. However, his work had not gone unnoticed, especially what he had done in Argentinos, with the seal that he does not intend to renounce: “having control of the ball, knowing what to do with the ball and playing to reduce spaces” , as explained last year.

He began part of his training as a coach when he was still a footballer. In the three decades that his career lasted, during which he wore the shirts of Independiente, Zaragoza, Barcelona and the Argentine national team, he worked with César Luis Menotti, Americo Gallego, Marcelo Bielsa y Frank Rijkaardamong others. But the two technicians who marked him the most were José Néstor Pekerman and, above all, Josep Guardiola.

It was precisely Guardiola who, in mid-2011, warned him that he would not take him into account in Barcelona for the following season, despite the fact that he was a highly appreciated player in the squad. culé. Esa frontality It is one of the traits that, beyond the aspects purely linked to the ball, he took from the Catalan coach and incorporated it into his repertoire.

“It is very important that coaches know how to manage the human factor. We must never lose sight of one obvious thing: the footballer is a person, before anything else. If you don’t reach his heart, you won’t get much from him. And the best way to enter his heart is not palmotherapysino tell the truth. What you want to hear and what you don’t want to hear, and in the most sincere way. That’s when the player gives himself in,” he explained last December in an interview published in La Nación.

Milito retired from professional football in June 2012, when I was 31 years old and he was wearing the shirt Independent. “I don’t feel mentally or physically as I would like. Before I could handle the small physical problems, but today I am a little tired, exhausted to fight. It’s a painful decision, but I had to make it. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because the day to day seemed very long,” he justified.

Three months earlier, the leadership of the Rojo had offered him to take over the technical direction to replace Ramon Diazbut he had refused. After his retirement, he preferred to climb the ladder little by little: he started directing the club’s Selectivo and then moved to the Reserve. In July 2014, he rejected a new proposal to take over the senior team, this time after the separation of Omar De Felippeconsidering that he was not prepared to lead Independiente.

Only in April 2015 did he accept his first challenge with a larger team: Students of La Plata. Although he had a good campaign in the eight months he remained in office (recording 16 wins, 8 draws and only 6 losses between the local tournament, the Copa Libertadores and the Argentine Cup), he chose to leave when that year ended. Five months later, and with that experience under his belt, he finally took charge of Independiente. “I want a brave team”proposed on May 20, 2016, during his presentation.

But things didn’t turn out as he expected. That adventure lasted only seven months.which ended the night of December 17, minutes after his team fell 1 to 0 against Banfield in the Libertadores de América, and three weeks after a painful defeat against Racing in a classic. “I gave my best to achieve great goals and unfortunately it didn’t happen that way. I was not able to achieve what I wanted. “I apologize to those who were very excited about my arrival,” he said when resigning.

He didn’t do very well either. O’Higgins Chilean nor in its second cycle in Estudiantes. Despite this, the Argentinos Juniors leadership trusted him to replace Diego Dabove in January 2021. “I liked the training system, the theme of promoting youth and the game system of always proposing and trying to be the protagonist. We had experienced something similar with (Gabriel) Heinze,” he justified. Cristian Malaspina a year and a half later, shortly after the team reached the semi-finals of the League Cup. In 2022, Argentinos would finish fourth in the season’s accumulated table and achieve qualification for the Copa Libertadores of 2023.

Milito’s cycle in the club lasted nine hundred and fifty-three days. The Fatherlya rarity in the volatile vernacular football. Beyond the numbers, which were not the most faithful reflection of their work (the team reaped 50.86% of the points in dispute), the team always had its stamp. “Do we have to play well? Yes. Do we have to defend well? Yes. But the important thing is that the players believe and that when we go out to play the world stops, that nothing else matters, that during those 90 minutes it doesn’t matter who is in front of us. Obviously the most important thing is the result, but I want to see that first because that takes you to the result. The way you compete leads you to the result,” he proposed. And he managed to leave that mark on his team.

In those 31 months of work, Argentinos played the Copa Libertadores twice. In 2021, he won his group and had to collide with River in the round of 16. In the first leg, they tied 1-1 at the Monumental in a duel remembered for the heated discussion, after the final whistle, between Milito and Marcelo Gallardo for a request for a reprimand for Fabrizio Angileri. “I can’t stand you anymore,” he snapped. Doll. “You can’t tell me to shut up,” the temperamental man replied. Marshalwho before and after had strong exchanges with referees, assistants, players and even plateistas. In the rematch, River won 2-0 at the Diego Armando Maradona with two goals from Braian Romero.

In 2023, the Animal reached the round of 16 of the Libertadores again and fell to Fluminenseultimately champion. Three weeks later, they were eliminated from the Argentine Cup by San Martín de San Juan in the round of 16. That afternoon, in the mixed zone of the Julio César Villagra stadium in Córdoba, Milito resigned. “I felt that my head had exploded a little and that those players had already given everything. We, as a coaching staff, had also given them everything. “It was something mutual,” he explained a month later.

After that end of the cycle, he took almost seven months off, waiting for a project that would seduce him. At the end of March of this year, the leadership of Atlético Mineiro sent Victor Bagy, his Football Director, to Buenos Aires to propose that he replace Luiz Felipe Scolari in command of a team that was on the verge of a decisive event, but going through turbulent days.

Milito accepted the challenge and became the 16th foreign coach in history of Atlético and in the fifth Argentine, after Gregorio Suárez, Jorge Sampaoli, Antonio Mohamed y Eduardo Coudet. On March 25, the day the club celebrated 116 years of its founding, it conducted its first training session at the Cidade do Galo facility. “Víctor (Bagy) introduced me to the entire organization of the club, the project. He showed me how serious it was and why they wanted me to be the coach. That was very important. They showed me an in-depth sports analysis, with quality players.” , explained the DT in his first contact with the Brazilian press.

Just five days later, he had to make his debut in a final: his team tied 2-2 at home with Cruzeiro in the first leg of the final match of the Mineiro Championship. Eight days later, Atlético won 3-1 in revenge at the Mineirão. Thirteen days after landing in Belo Horizonte, Milito gave the Enter his fifth consecutive state title and the 49th in its history.

After that, the Belo Horizonte cast did not have an outstanding performance in the Brasileirão, where they finished 10th. Instead, he got into the decisive stages of the other two competitions in which he is participating. On Sunday they will play at home in the first leg of the final of the Brazilian Cup in front of Flemish (the rematch will be on November 10 at the Maracaná). And on November 30 he will return to Buenos Aires to star in the Libertadores final. If Atlético wins, Milito will become the third Argentine coach to win the continent’s main club tournament with a foreign team: they did it before Nery Pumpidowith Olimpia in 2002, and Edgardo Bauzawith Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito in 2008.

1961: Armando Reganeschi with Palmeiras (lost to Peñarol)

1968: Alfredo González with Palmeiras (lost with Estudiantes)

1974: José Poy with São Paulo (lost with Independiente)

1978: Carlos Bilardo with Deportivo Cali (lost to Boca)

1981: Vicente Cantatore with Cobreloa (lost to Flamengo

1982: Vicente Cantatore with Cobreloa (lost to Peñarol)

1990: Miguel Brindisi with Barcelona de Guayaquil (lost with Olimpia)

1998: Ruben Insua with Barcelona de Guayaquil (lost to Vasco da Gama)

2002: Nery Pumpido with Olimpia (beat São Caetano)

2008: Edgardo Bauza with Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito (beat Fluminense)