Marseilles (AFP)
OM's motto "Straight to the point" sticks to the image of its new coach, the Argentinian Jorge Sampaoli, apostle of offensive play and self-proclaimed disciple of Marcelo Bielsa, but the "explosive temperament" of the tattooed bald n hasn't always done wonders.
The new Marseille coach, 60, came out early from the anonymity of Casilda, his hometown located about fifty kilometers from Rosario, thanks to a photo published in a local newspaper in the mid-1990s.
It shows "Sampa", black t-shirt and sunglasses, perched on top of a tree.
It is from there that he continues to shout his instructions to his team, after being excluded from the sidelines for too vehement behavior.
"His character has not changed too much, he still has the same profile, the same strong personality. He has kept his explosive temperament, and sometimes that is a problem", decrypts for AFP Gustavo Hofman, commentator of ESPN Brasil who scrutinized him at Santos (2018-19) and Atlético Mineiro (2020-21).
The globe-trotter has dragged this image according to his experiences on the benches of Peruvian, Chilean and Ecuadorian clubs, before his first significant success with the Universidad de Chile, which he leads to the Copa Sudamericana in 2011, that is to say l equivalent of the Europa League.
His "inordinate passion" for the soccer ball, as he described it, can turn into an obsession for the man who once set the pace for his jogging tracks by listening to tapes of press conferences from his mentor, "El Loco" Bielsa.
"He is a model and an inspiration", often repeats Sampaoli who, like his elder brother, found himself at the helm of the Argentine selection.
Bielsa led the Albiceleste for six years (1998-2004), his discipline imitated him for fifteen small matches until the World-2018, missed in its great width.
- "Boiling" on the bench -
This express passage on the Argentinian bench damaged the good reputation that Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya had forged as Chile coach between 2012 and 2016.
Under his orders, the very offensive "Roja" went so far as to beat Spain, then defending champion, in a 2014 World Cup that ended in the round of 16 on penalties against Brazil.
The following year, she won her first Copa America in the final against Lionel Messi's Argentina.
Called to the rescue of a very ill Albiceleste, in May 2017, he saw a disastrous World-2018: second in the group, eliminated in the round of 16 by the Blues of Kylian Mabppé, cold with some players.
"Every game was almost a pain," "we were all pushed towards an obligation to win which made it difficult to bring out talent," said Marca the technician, forced to resign, to the newspaper.
Invited by a polling institute to define it in a single word, the supporters of the Albiceleste did not miss it: "Incompetent", "clown" or "arrogant" were the most frequent occurrences ...
If he has recovered since in Brazil, Sampaoli remains convinced that "football is too unstable".
"The coaches last very short. We cannot have consolidated projects over the long term," he said again on February 13 at a press conference.
The new challenge he has chosen for himself in Europe, after a mixed experience in Seville (2016-17), represents a chance to see him apply his precepts, provided that OM offers him the stability he hopes for.
"He remains one of the coaches most ahead of his time, in terms of tactics, ideas on football", but "his last experiences have all come to nothing, he needs another longer stint, as with the Chilean selection ", notes Gustavo Hofman of ESPN.
The one who has just been a father for the second time in a little over a year, with his companion the Chilean artist Paula Velazquez (he already had two children from a first relationship), remains however also "hot during the matches "than unpredictable outside.
"Behind the scenes it is said that it is difficult to manage, that it can have complicated relations with the players, the leaders or the journalists", concludes the Brazilian commentator.
bur-lg-dm-jta / bpa
© 2021 AFP