Guillermo Barros Schelotto reappeared: his time in Boca, the 30 days as Palermo coach and what it was like to train Ibrahimovic

Almost a year after having enjoyed his last coaching experience, Guillermo Barros Schelotto gave an interview in which he reviewed a good part of his career as a group leader. In dialogue with the environment The Coaches’ Voice, the Twin He pointed to his references, he referred to his beginnings in Lanús, the ephemeral stay in Palermo in Italy, the passage through Boca and what it was like to direct a world star like Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the Los Angeles Galaxy of the MLS.

From his time as a footballer, Guillermo was incorporating concepts from his different technicians that he would later apply from that place. For having had them in their formative stage, the Uruguayan Gregorio Pérez and Carlos Timoteo Griguol were his DT teachers. But logically he does not forget Carlos Bianchi in the golden age xeneize nor to others like Marcelo Bielsa (Argentine team), Ricardo La Volpe and Alfio Basile, also in Boca.

The leader of a coaching staff made up of his brother Gustavo, Ariel Paw Pereyra, the physical trainer Javier Valdecantos and the goalkeeper coach Juan José Romero, confessed to having felt nervous and anxious on the way to his first practice as a Lanús coach: “I remember my first day perfectly. On the way to the club I was thinking about what would be the presentation message to the players, because many of them had been my rivals. They were contemporaries, but I had to give them the image of a coach ”.

At Garnet He felt comfortable from the first moment, he was champion of the South American 2013 and formed the basis of a team that would later obtain titles such as the Championship, the Argentine Super Cup and the Bicentennial Cup in 2016. During the last stretch of his stay in Lanús he struck the door the Palermo from Italy, who would take it with him when his contract ended.

On that ephemeral experience of just 30 days, he reviewed: “I traveled to Italy quickly. Almost overnight to lead a team in relegation position when we arrived. In those few days we analyzed that we had to focus on earning points, getting the team out of the bad situation and then starting in June, in the new season, starting to put together the project. It was a beaten squad, with many coach changes, but the human treatment with the players was excellent, they helped us a lot to develop what we wanted ”.

Despite some good results and performance that excited the Sicilians, off the pitch a problem persisted that led to their withdrawal: “UEFA asked me for 3 years of experience to grant me the license. I had them, but then he asked for two more. It was very uncomfortable to be in the locker room because someone from Serie A came and told us that we could not be there because the issue of the license was still under discussion and it was not given. Before the games, he couldn’t be in the dressing room. They gave me a special permit for 30 days, but the rest of the coaching staff did not. I had to get out of the locker room, talk to them and exchange opinions. It seemed to us that it was not the correct way to manage a team from ‘Calcium’ that was also fighting for relegation ”.

The only drinkable solution was for him to take a course that would require him to travel to Florence all week without being able to work with his team. He decided to put an end to the adventure despite the anger of the president of the institution, who asked him to continue since he had risked it by hiring a foreign coach for the first time in the club’s history. “There was no point in doing it that way. For me, Palermo was an incredible, unique opportunity and I don’t know if I’m going to have it again. But the truth that for honesty or integrity could not continue. I wanted to have a rematch in Italy“, Hill.

Regarding his appointment as coach of Mouth, an entity in which he appears as one of the historical soccer idols due to the number of titles he won, analyzed: “We were two-time champions of the local tournament and we reached a semifinal and then the final of the Copa Libertadores, but The most important thing is that we had a squad in which we empowered all the players. All who arrived left; they improved their career”.

And he added: “To see Darío Benedetto, Nahitan Nández in Italy, Lisandro Magallán in Europe, Cristian Pavón with the permanent possibility of going to any team, the Colombian Wilmar Barrios in Europe… All players that we formed and that we believed in them and that we work on them because we did something thought out, because everything that one does with intelligence, with time, with work, is not from today to tomorrow, it is in the future and in the future it does give you performance. But it is difficult in today’s world to impose that ”.

Barros Schelotto, ejected from the club after the defeat in the 2018 Libertadores final against River in Madrid, assured: “My experience as a player, ten years, also made me know in advance that in Boca everything that is done is dimensioned by one hundred. The good and bad. But it’s what I like. It doesn’t make me nervous to go out to a full Bombonera, or to play finals or matches against classic rivals like River Plate, San Lorenzo, Racing, Independiente… For me it’s exciting; attractive. You want to fill your life with those moments”.

Finally, he emphasized his last item on the resume: Los Angeles Galaxy in MLS. There he found a “different” way of coaching in a league that he had known as a footballer for his four years at the Columbus Crew: “As a coach it was different because you have to know the rules of the league well. What are the ways to build a team, names and so on. How can you bring them, what is the system. It is a different league from the rest of the world, there is a budget that cannot be exceeded ”.

Regarding the comparison between the North American league and the Argentine one, he noted: “There exists that office work, of which I do not deny. Coaching development in MLS is much more general; the passion with which one lives in Argentina is different. When you lose it’s the worst until the next game in seven days. In the United States the defeat is more intellectual. It does not affect weekly work or mood so much ”.

What was it like managing the Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Guillermo explained it in the first person: “Looking at it from the outside, one thought ‘What will it be like? How to do it?’ But I immediately realized when I started working that for something he was among the three best players in the world and he spent 15 years at the first level. He trains 100%, demands professionalism, enters the field and from the first minute he trains at a high level, like the best. I had him for a year and I had no problem in terms of respect and relationship with him. With me it was fantastic, respectful to the maximum”. And he added: “You realize that Ibra he is where he is because of the work he imposes on himself. It is the example of how care, discipline, how being a professional leads you to be among the best ”.

Regarding his future, the 48-year-old strategist said he had no regrets about leaving Boca at the end of 2018 and continuing in MLS. “That is my intention (to continue in the United States) or maybe Mexico. MLS is a growing league that can match the major leagues of the continent such as Argentina, Mexico or Brazil “, he concluded.

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