The life and career of Marcelo Bielsa

There are very few coaches as fascinating in world football as Marcelo Bielsa. The Argentinian has become known in the game as one of the most peculiar tacticians, oftentimes prioritizing his way of playing over anything else, including results. Moreover, his introverted and quite delicate way of expressing his ideas has resulted in a lot of analysis regarding his methodology and approach to things.

All of this has resulted in a manager who has accomplished the key role of the position, which is developing players, but also someone who has become a divisive figure because of the results he has gained throughout the years. He is loved by many and hated by many alike. Therefore, it is fascinating to look back at his career and what he managed to achieve to gain this reputation.

This is the life and career of Marcelo Bielsa up to today.

The 1990s

Marcelo Bielsa played in the 70s as a defender in his home country of Argentina, starting with Newell's Old Boys. After what was a somewhat low-profile career, he started to coach at the youth level with Newell's, already building a reputation because of his peculiar training methods.

Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentinian defender who would later become known because of his managerial career with the likes of Tottenham, Chelsea, and Paris Saint-Germain and was coached by him back in those days, mentioned once how Bielsa was "twenty years ahead of everyone in Argentina". This would come to fruition in 1990 when he took over the Newell's senior team and went on to win the 1990 Torneo Apertura and the 1990-91 Torneo Integración.

The cherry on top would be the team reaching the 1992 Copa Libertadores final, losing to Sao Paulo on penalties. Widely regarded as one of the best Newell's sides of all time, Bielsa was making waves as a serious talent in the football coaching world.

Bielsa would leave Argentina in 1993 and went on to have a stint in Mexican football, coaching Atlas and then America from 1993 to 1996. While it wasn't a negative period for him, it didn't have the success he had in his home country. He would return to coach Velez Sarsfield in 1997, winning the 1998 Clausura, thus adding another trophy to his cabinet in the Argentinian league.

When he was given the chance to coach the Spanish La Liga side Espanyol in 1998, it seemed that he was bound to start his European journey, but things took a turn for Bielsa.

The 2000s

Bielsa would suddenly leave the Espanyol position since he was offered the job of the Argentina national team. A major milestone for him, the team would be eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 1999 Copa America against Brazil, but then they would perform extremely well at the qualifiers.

Argentina would qualify to the 2002 World Cup in first place and playing the kind of intense and attacking-minded football that Bielsa enjoys. Moreover, the team was boasting a lot of talented players, so they were given the tag of candidates. However, they would end up getting eliminated in the group stages, widely regarded as the manager's biggest failure in his career.

"Very briefly, because I have to summarize things from a long time ago," Bielsa recalled in 2025 about his time coaching the Argentina national team. "About Argentina: it was an extraordinary team that finished first, by 14 points, in the Qualifiers, and the runner-up was the one that won the World Cup. It was a unique team, and everyone is criticizing my performance while leading that team. They're justified in their criticism, because, evidently, Argentina didn't arrive at that tournament in the form it had achieved in the Qualifiers."

Bielsa would end resigning from his position in 2004 and would go on to coach Chile in 2007, starting an upheaval that would mark a gradual change in that nation. He guided them to the 2010 World Cup, helping cement the careers of several high-profile players for that country, such as Arturo Vidal, Humberto Suazo, and Alexis Sanchez.

Athletic Bilbao was one of the clubs that Marcelo Bielsas coached

The 2010s and the modern days

The following decade would see Bielsa trying his luck with several football clubs. His two years at Athletic Bilbao had the club playing some exhilarating football, losing the 2012 Europa League final to Diego Simeone's nascent Atletico Madrid side. Moreover, his sole full season coaching Olympique Marseille had them close to winning a league title against Paris Saint-Germain.

An example of Bielsa's peculiar personality is how he didn't fully join Lazio in 2016 because they weren't adhering to his demands, later on joining Lille and having an underwhelming stint. He would later coach Leeds United, taking them back to the Premier League and turning them into the league's darlings for a while.

His recent years with Uruguay have been up and down, but he has secured the qualification to the next World Cup. Furthermore, he has always prioritized his playing style, come what may. That is something that has endeared him to a lot of football fans all over the world, even if it came with ups and downs along the way.

"I do not consider myself above any other coaches," Bielsa said in 2022 in regards to Mauricio Pochettino's comments of how he was twenty years ahead of everyone in Argentina when coaching Newell's. "No, (I coach) more or less the same things. I arrived at Leeds with my character and my personality pretty well established."

In conclusion

Marcelo Bielsa is a coach who has always gone his own way and his career has included both great successes mixed with painful failures, but he has always maintained an unwavering belief in his football philosophy. Apart from the results, he has shaped both players and teams, and you could even say entire football cultures. This is why he remains one of the most fascinating profiles in modern football history.