'Mono' Burgos: "Nothing was broken with Simeone, I just needed to find my place as head coach"

Germán Burgos (Mar del Plata, 1969) has never been afraid of flying alone. On the contrary. He left Atlético, letting go of Simeone's hand, just two years ago. He did it to...

Germán Burgos (Mar del Plata, 1969) has never been afraid of flying alone.

On the contrary.

He left Atlético, letting go of Simeone's hand, just two years ago.

He did it to find his place as head coach and since February, after a brief and unsuccessful experience at Newell's, he has found it in Greece, at the head of an Aris from Thessaloniki which he has put in Europe at the stroke of a stopwatch and a notebook.

These days he rests at his house in Madrid, but his head does not stop spinning.

To orbit around football, as he has been doing since childhood on the cement of Mar del Plata.

"I have two nicknames: in football I am Mono, but in the neighborhood they call me Head," he admits in a telephone conversation with EL MUNDO, with that touch of humor that accompanies his resounding voice.

Germán does not usually leave anyone indifferent.

Neither now.

Why was he a goalkeeper? I was playing in Mar del Plata, at home, in my hometown.

There he gets very used to playing in the street.

He would have been seven years old and that day he was the only one who was not on the cement, which was where they played then.

I was stopping footballs in front of a light pole and a steel cable that were at an angle.

I see that a man is looking at me and he tells me: "We are looking for a goalkeeper."

It was a Friday and he tells me: "We play on Sunday."

I get home, I talk to my parents and on Sunday I was playing a triangular game where we became champions.

The first championship I played, I won. I had a very particular style behind the sticks.

Is it inherited or is it trained? In my time we didn't have the possibilities that kids now have to search for images on their mobile phones or computers.

We were far from that technological era that exists now.

And then I liked (Hugo) Gatti.

I said to myself, "This is it."

One day he went with Ferro (Railway) to play a minor division game against Boca and I see him training on his knees with the first team.

He kneeling and the rest of the squad with the ball.

And then I saw him get one with his chest, another with his head, another with his elbow... I didn't warm up with my team because I was shocked watching him warm up.

My team warned me: "Germán, we're warming up."

I replied: "Stop, stop."

I spent 15 or 20 minutes of the warm-up looking at him and that's where I said, "This guy is it."

He was about 15 or 16 years old.

Then I discovered that that was what I liked.Tell me about that childhood in Mar del Plata.[He thinks] he was happy.

I don't have siblings and I've always had to play alone.

I was happy to go out and play with the boys.

It was like a desperation that he had the power to go out and play with them.

I remember it with happiness.His father was a hairdresser, so the demons would take him to see him with that long hair.He was a hairdresser and doorman too.

Something very funny was happening, at the time of the 80s those bands like Duran Duran, The Cure,... all with those hairs came out.

And since my old man was a hairdresser, I told him: "Ramón, you have to cut my hair like that."

And he answered me: "You don't have a head, kid. For that cut you don't have a head."

so the demons would take him to see him with that long hair. He was a hairdresser and a doorman too.

Something very funny happened, at the time of the 80s those bands like Duran Duran, The Cure,... all with those hairs came out.

And since my old man was a hairdresser, I told him: "Ramón, you have to cut my hair like that."

And he answered me: "You don't have a head, kid. For that cut you don't have a head."

so the demons would take him to see him with that long hair. He was a hairdresser and a doorman too.

Something very funny was happening, at the time of the 80s those bands like Duran Duran, The Cure,... all with those hairs came out.

And since my old man was a hairdresser, I told him: "Ramón, you have to cut my hair like that."

And he answered me: "You don't have a head, kid. For that cut you don't have a head."

My friends from Mar del Plata, those from the first litter, before going to Buenos Aires, they all called me big-headed.

I have two nicknames: in soccer I am Mono, but in the neighborhood they call me Head.

That's why I realized that my old man was right.He has three children, but none of them took to soccer like you.No, my oldest daughter is a lawyer.

Another studies translation and the youngest studies computer science.

They didn't see me.

When you dedicate yourself to football and play every three days they don't see you.

You have a rest day and you're concentrating, traveling, playing, selecting the national team... you're rarely at home. He's been a footballer, a singer and now a coach.

What have you been most passionate about? Football.

Music is so much fun and I always wanted to be able to have fun.

Soccer is also a lot of fun and it allows you to do many things like training now.

I am passionate about everything I do, but it is football that drives me. He has had a few coaches in his career.

How is the Germán coach? I always try to show honesty, work and explain to the players how to win.

I always try to carry it forward.

It is what I have left of the coaches I had.His solo debut with Newell's did not go well, what was missing?In most clubs they always require immediacy.

They do not have the patience to wait for the teams to be better assembled.

That is what was missing more than anything. However, now in Greece, at the head of the Aris of Thessaloniki, he has found the key. I met great individuals.

To the players I said: "I have come here for you,

We began to work and fix certain deficiencies that they had as a team.

We found the results, which were very important. Do you dare with Greek? Well, when I play or train I live in such a state of concentration that I don't even go out.

I rarely go anywhere because I spend all day thinking, analyzing and working on things to give to the players.

As I know languages I have no problems with them or with managers.

We speak in English and since I like the language, some things of Greek are left over.

I speak Italian, English and Spanish.

I have players who speak up to five languages.

So, the coach also has to adapt to the current times and the environment where he is.

We began to work and fix certain deficiencies that they had as a team.

We found the results, which were very important. Do you dare with Greek? Well, when I play or train I live in such a state of concentration that I don't even go out.

I rarely go anywhere because I spend all day thinking, analyzing and working on things to give to the players.

As I know languages I have no problems with them or with managers.

We speak in English and since I like the language, some things of Greek are left over.

I speak Italian, English and Spanish.

I have players who speak up to five languages.

So, the coach also has to adapt to the current times and the environment where he is.

Do you dare with Greek? Well, when I play or train I live in such a state of concentration that I don't even go out.

I rarely go anywhere because I spend all day thinking, analyzing and working on things to give to the players.

As I know languages I have no problems with them or with managers.

We speak in English and since I like the language, some things of Greek are left over.

I speak Italian, English and Spanish.

I have players who speak up to five languages.

So, the coach also has to adapt to the current times and the environment where he is.

Do you dare with Greek? Well, when I play or train I live in such a state of concentration that I don't even go out.

I rarely go anywhere because I spend all day thinking, analyzing and working on things to give to the players.

As I know languages I have no problems with them or with managers.

We speak in English and since I like the language, some things of Greek are left over.

I speak Italian, English and Spanish.

I have players who speak up to five languages.

So, the coach also has to adapt to the current times and the environment where he is.

We speak in English and since I like the language, some things of Greek are left over.

I speak Italian, English and Spanish.

I have players who speak up to five languages.

So, the coach also has to adapt to the current times and the environment where he is.

We speak in English and since I like the language, some things of Greek are left over.

I speak Italian, English and Spanish.

I have players who speak up to five languages.

So, the coach also has to adapt to the current times and the environment where he is.

I was shocked watching Hugo Gatti warm up and discovered that that was what I liked

Always keep everything well pointed in pen.

How many notebooks do you spend a year? Ugh, a lot of sheets.

I am unbearable with leaves.

I like to write.

I also do it with the computer, but I like writing.

I studied that way, writing.

By writing, everything I had to study was much easier for me.

It is what the journalist did before having the ease of tape recorders.

Before they were pen and paper.

I like to write because it suits me more.

I retain the situation much more. Are you one of those who gets up at dawn to write down things that occur to you? I don't sleep much.

If I have to do something or prepare something better or a training session that I am going to do or that I had done was not entirely clear to me because I saw something that I did not like about a pass, a spin, a first time return, I get up and I correct.

Or if I'm up,

As usual, I do it again and repeat it until I'm satisfied.

As a coach, you cannot present an exercise or situation without being sure of what you are going to talk about and tell the player.

Because it is not preparing a training session just because.

It's setting him up to win the match.

We prepare it to explain to the player how to win.

That's the difficult thing about coaching.

Explain how to do it and then reproduce it in the game.

We arrived knowing the rival, knowing everything.

Then, the difficult thing is that the group does it and then it is achieved.

This is vital. Does football or life rob you of more sleep? I don't sleep.

I haven't slept for a long time.

Five hours at night at the most, then a nap for sure.

I'm always spinning.

I think it is a matter of genetics.

I'm just like my grandmother and she was an Aries like me.

They still remember in Carabanchel those first days when he would personally measure the field of each rival.

Are you still so methodical? I look at the fields, I look at the lights to see if they are low so they don't bother me.

I always look at things.

The state of the field if it has rained.

I seek to give things to the player.

I warn him about sectors of the field and details, that's why I care so much about training.

It is rare for it to happen on a professional level, but it can happen.

That is why I went through the fields to see what I was going to find, knowing that they were smaller. He has put Aris in the Conference League, the competition that Mourinho has won with Roma.

With him he had some other episode in the band.

Is it nostalgic with those memories of the past? Nothing, I live in the present.

All I remember is getting a bunch of player championships,

another bunch of coach and i need more.

I need to get more.

That's the only thing I remember.

It is like a base to push yourself and you have to continue.

I live thinking that.

That's why I remember that I won the first championship when I was seven years old and at 10 I was champion of Argentina.

Every so often, a championship.

And another, and another.

That's what moves me.

I live in the present, the past only serves to push me. Does love also run out in football? Without love you cannot live.

You always have to dedicate yourself to someone better.

I learned that from a very young age. There are still many people who wonder why their relationship with Simeone broke up. Nothing was broken.

It is a decision that happens often.

It happens continuously.

Now that you know me a little more, knowing the emotional load that I have to seek victory, to seek, to seek, always seeking to win,

can be understood a little more.

Now people understand.

It's as simple as this man has been here a long time and needs to find his place as head coach.

It's nothing more than that.He needed to fly alone.Of course, as it will happen to you at your job.

One day you will want to be a writer (Laughter). It was strange not seeing him in the Cholo documentary. They invited me and I couldn't do it because I was training at Newell's when it was made. Do you have a relationship with Simeone? No, now we are each in our team and when something important happens, I always have the detail of approaching. But the Atlético season will have followed... The last few months I was dedicated to Aris.

I did not see anything.