Simeone, in his San Siro lair | Soccer

For the mark he left in the two years (1997-99) that he wore his shirt, for the times it has been said, including by his sister and representative Natalia, that sooner or later he will coach Inter Milan, and for what is in game, the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 has a double burden for Diego Pablo Simeone. It will be quite an examination from his status as a coach. Simone Inzaghi’s Inter, current runners-up in the tournament, rule Serie A with solid, fast and vertical football that seriously threatens the continuity of the red and whites in the competition. From his status as a former player he will experience an emotional volcano. Simeone was idolized at San Siro. “In just two years he conquered the Inter fans because he was a player of character, a warrior, with a lot of heart and very passionate. At first they whistled at him because he didn’t play well, soccer It was different from Spanish football, but he was intelligent and ended up adapting. He was a spectacular midfielder in the work he did for the team and also for the goals he scored,” recalls the legendary defender Giuseppe Bergomi, world champion with Italy in Spain 82 and one of the captains of that team. “They were the two best years of my career, I have beautiful memories of my teammates and the people. They have loved me a lot and I always gave my best. There is always something you feel inside when you arrive at a place where you love a lot of people,” Simeone was honest this Monday.

San Siro was also the stage where Simeone lost in 2016, against Real Madrid and in the penalty shootout, the second opportunity to crown Atlético European champion. There too, in a tent attached to the coliseum, Simeone made the stomach of the red and white fans and the club shrink when, by surprise, dejected by the painful defeat, he asked for time to reflect and make sure if he had the strength to lift the team to add to the blow of Lisbon in 2104 this other two years later. That was resolved after a trip by Miguel Ángel Gil Marín to Buenos Aires in which the club’s largest shareholder and the sports director, the Italian Andrea Berta, gave him the warmth that he said he needed and a lot of pecuniary affection.

Milan, a city he often visits with his wife, and in general Italy, his small homeland, overexcite Simeone. Among the memories most rooted in his childhood are Sunday pizzas, his favorite day since then because while he devoured the delicacy he also devoured Italian league matches, possibly Maradona’s Naples. He soccer It entered his veins and he was already able to enjoy it as a player at the age of 18 in Pisa. He arrived at Inter more mature from Atlético de Madrid in exchange for seven million euros. At that time, Serie A was competitive and economically the mecca that was later the Spanish League and is now the Premier League. Simeone gave the profile of the notable footballers that the wealthy owner of the company, Massimo Moratti, was looking for to support the ambitious project that he had promised to Ronaldo Nazario. “He was a leader in the locker room and on the field. He had the competitiveness of the Argentinians, the passion and always talked about football and tactics. I don’t know if I should call it an obsession, but he loved football a lot. The players from the 97-98 season have a WhatsApp group and Cholo always responds, even if he has a Champions League match,” says Bergomi.

With Ronaldo, Cholo had a friction over how the bonuses were distributed that is still remembered in Italy. The Brazilian scorer was in favor of the awards going to the entire squad while Simeone defended that only the players who were called up for the matches should receive them. “It wasn’t a big deal, it was an issue that was finally resolved by talking to the owners of the company,” says Bergomi. If he had clashes with Ronaldo even in training, with Javier Zanetti, current director of Inter, he sealed a close friendship that still lasts.

With Simeone everything is usually very intense and those two years at Inter were no less so. He was the leader of the team under the direction of Gigi Simoni, with whom he won a UEFA Cup and touched the scudetto in his first year. When the second ended, now without Simoni on the bench, Marcelo Lippi suggested to Moratti that he sell him to Lazio in an operation that also included Christian Vieri’s move to Inter. “The transfer of Simeone is a technical issue,” said Moratti. “Moratti gave Lippi carte blanche and that was the end of Simeone, that of Pagliuca and I retired,” adds Bergomi. The move was not to the Argentine’s liking. He had identified a lot with the club and with a fan who sang to him at San Siro “Diego Pablo Simeone runs and fights like a lion.”. Los fans They appreciated his mold of a guerrilla midfielder, a leader and a goal-getter, the author of memorable goals in the derbies with Milan or the one who completed the comeback against Strasbourg in the aforementioned UEFA Cup in ’98. The French team had won the first leg ( 2-0) and Simeone scored Inter’s third after getting rid of two rivals with a chest control on the edge of the area and a self-pass.

With a goal he also took revenge for the spite he felt with his departure from Inter, but his feelings also surfaced. The calendar showed that on the last day of the 2001-02 season, Inter visited Lazio. A victory gave the championship to his former team, which was defeated 4-2 and lost the title. Simeone made it 3-2 with a header. “When I hit the ball it seemed like time stopped. It was a goal that angered many people I cared about, they all looked at me as if they were saying: ‘what have you done?’ Simeone would say years later. The 4-2 was scored by Simone Inzaghi, who today will examine this Atlético team less applied to the rigors of the soccer. Although if Di Marco, Bastoni, Mkhytarian, Barella, Çalhanoglu, Lautaro or Thuram push too hard and it is necessary to ensure that the tie reaches the Metropolitano alive, Simeone will have no qualms about accommodating his team on the field with their most Italian suit. “In the Champions League the level rises in every sense and there are moments in which you can play well and others in which you have to suffer,” admits Koke.

“Inter is among the four best teams in Europe, the Italian league speaks for itself. Last year they played a great final against Manchester City. Now they compete with more security. I like it a lot, they play concrete, simple, and sometimes, the simple things are the ones that come out best. It will be a match of duels, whoever wins the most will have the most chances,” Simeone predicted.

“Diego has also evolved as a coach, it is no longer just defense and counterattacking. Atlético can have several records,” says Bergomi, who prefers not to comment on a future with Simeone on the San Siro bench: “Inter is now in good hands.”