Bielsa stays on

Argentine coach signs new deal despite World Cup flop

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- Argentina has finally renewed the contract of coach Marcelo Bielsa despite his team's first round exit at the World Cup, an Argentine Football Federation (AFA) official said.

"Bielsa has signed the contract," said Jose Luis Meiszner, a member of the three-man committee which has been negotiating with the reclusive coach, after an AFA meeting Tuesday night.

Bielsa, the only candidate for the job after former under-20 coach Jose Pekerman ruled himself out of contention last month, has been on the point of signing a new contract for nearly a month. He is due to give a news conference next week.

Bielsa becomes the third Argentina coach to stay on after a World Cup finals but the first to do so after failing to win the tournament. Cesar Luis Menotti, in 1978, and Carlos Bilardo, eight years later, both won soccer's top prize.

The brooding, eccentric 47-year-old Bielsa kept his job on the strength of his team's performances over the previous four years.

Argentina won the South American World Cup qualifying group, losing only once in 18 games, and also beat Italy and Germany away in friendly internationals.

Local media said that Bielsa will be in charge for the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup and his contract would be automatically extended to include the tournament itself if Argentina qualify. He is expected to take a significant wage cut for his second stint.

Bielsa had admitted before the World Cup that coming second in South Korea and Japan would be seen as a failure in Argentina.

In the event, his team were eliminated at the first hurdle, finishing third in a tough group, which also included England, Sweden and Nigeria.

On returning home, Bielsa isolated himself on a farm deep in the province of Santa Fe.

Chance for revenge

In a gesture almost unheard of in the volatile world of Latin American soccer, Argentina has given Bielsa a second bite of the cherry despite his team's hugely disappointing campaign at the World Cup.

Failure -- which in Brazil and Argentina can even mean reaching the final but losing -- is routinely greeted with the sack, yet Bielsa, whose team's first round elimination was its worst performance since 1970, has defied the odds and been given another chance.

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) have decided to judge Bielsa's work over the last four years, during which his team was widely acclaimed as the best team in the world, rather than just three games in ten short days at the World Cup finals in June.

"It's the first time that we have discussed hiring somebody who hasn't won and that for me seems to be a step forward," said veteran Cesar Luis Menotti, who led Argentina to their first World Cup win in 1978.

"The decision to appoint somebody to such an important position should always be based on a serious analysis, not just results.

"A lot of times, you get results which don't justify a positive analysis, and a lot of times it's the other way round."

Bielsa, who is seen in Argentina as an eccentric, introverted figure, has been desperate for a chance to make amends for failure in Japan and the media have dubbed his second term as "The Revenge."

He became a virtual recluse after the World Cup, hiding away on a farm deep in the province of Santa Fe.

Although former Boca Juniors coach Carlos Bianchi had been touted as a possible replacement and has popular support, former under-20 coach Jose Pekerman was the AFA's only other serious candidate and he dropped out of the race a month ago.

Since then it had been more a question of when, rather than if, Bielsa would renew his contract.

It will be fascinating to see exactly how Bielsa goes about rebuilding his team and whether there are any changes in his approach.

The coach, an obsessive who often sits up all night watching videos of his players in action, has been accused of putting too much emphasis on a game plan that gave players little individual freedom.

Tortured intellectual

After the World Cup, writer Juan Sasturain labelled the side "the best European team in (Latin) America ... with diluted Argentine footballing roots."

Bielsa was also criticised for leaving the talented Javier Saviola and Juan Roman Riquelme at home for the World Cup and for never once playing Hernan Crespo and Gabriel Batistuta together in attack.

Bielsa, who often gives the appearance of a tortured intellectual when speaking and gives long, contorted answers to the simplest questions, does not come from a football background but instead hails from a family of successful lawyers.

His playing career was cut short by a knee injury at the age of 25, prompting him to go into coaching. He graduated as a coach in 1982, worked with the juniors at Newell's Old Boys for eight years before being promoted to the first team in 1990.

He won the Argentine championship in his first season in charge and then led them to the final of the South American Libertadores Cup the following year with another Argentine title thrown in for good measure.

He moved on to Mexico, coaching Atlas and America, and Spain, where he spent a year with Espanyol, before being named as successor to Daniel Passarella following the 1998 World Cup.

 

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