Marcelo Bielsa is one of the most influential coaches in the history of modern soccer. He's back at the World Cup for the third and possibly final time.
Bielsa is a legend, a genius, a visionary. He can also be eccentric, stubborn, and simultaneously pragmatic and idealistic. If you don't know him at all or only know of him as that coach hipster football nerds really like, please read on. He's one of the greatest gifts to the game of soccer and someone not to be overlooked as he tries to bring success to Uruguay and entertain all who watch along the way.
The last time Bielsa was on this stage, his Chilean side played some of the best soccer in the 2010 edition in South Africa. Since then he's led Athletic Bilbao to two finals in 2012, took Leeds United back to the Premier League after 16 years out of England's top tier. Bielsa also delivered Leeds to a 9th place finish and the most points for a newly promoted team in 20 years in the Premier League.
Earlier in his career, he won a Primera Division in Argentina in 1990-91 and the Clausura in 1992 with Newell's Old Boys. Six years later he won the 1998 Clausura in Argentina with Velez Sarsfield. In 2004 he won Olympic Gold with Argentina, along with a young Carlos Tevez, who won the Golden Boot with eight goals.
He also quit at Lazio in Italy after two days in 2016, left Marseille in France after one season in which the team finished fourth and lasted less than half a season with Lille in 2017, also in France.
There's much more to Bielsa than just his success and incredibly contentious, short spells at several clubs. His playing style inspires a level of enjoyment in the game few coaches can among the supporters of the teams he's guided. Newell's Old Boys named their stadium after him. Chile, Athletic Bilbao and Leeds tried to preserve and build on an identity based on his playing style after he left.
Many successful coaches, far more successful than the man himself, have cited Bielsa as a significant influence on their careers. Bielsa hasn't had the levels of success of other coaches held in such high regard in the modern era of the game that began with the formation of the English Premier League, Champions League and the Bosman ruling of 1995 that opened the doors for far greater levels of player movement in Europe.
Pep Guardiola famously sought him out for advice before beginning his glorious coaching career and considers Bielsa to be the best coach in the world. The two allegedly spent 11 hours talking the beautiful game in one sitting. It was not long after that Pep took over Barcelona B, moved to the first team and changed the game of soccer forever.
Bielsa is also looked at as an inspiration by Diego Simeone, two-time La Liga winner and Europa League winner with Atletico Madrid. He recruited a young Mauricio Pochettino as a player, who later, as a coach, beat expectations with teams like Southampton, Espanyol and Tottenham Hotspur. Gerardo Martino is another influenced by Bielsa; he guided Atlanta United to an MLS Cup, Inter Miami to a Leagues Cup and Supporters Shield while also winning a CONCACAF Gold Cup with Mexico, among many others in a trophy-laden coaching career. The coach who followed him as head coach of the Chilean national team, Jorge Sampaoli, won Chile the 2015 Copa América, carrying on in Bielsa's style.
It's an impressive group of coaches but it just scratches the surface of the influence he's had on how the game is coached and played. Many youth soccer coaches have taken influence from him. Specifically, his unrelenting style of play that doesn't change from opponent to opponent or based on the score of the game in hand. He believes that if your plan B works better than your plan A, then plan B should be plan A.
Bielsa has no plan B.
He focuses on vertical attacking play because he believes it is the way to create chances, score goals, and win. And because he believes teams are obligated to entertain, to him, the fans deserve nothing less than to be entertained. If his teams have a lead, he wants to defend that lead by scoring again, not dropping off and seeing out a game.
His teams, whether it be Athletic Bilbao going full throttle against Pep's Barcelona or Leeds' unflinching commitment to press and attack in numbers against England's biggest clubs, inspire youth coaches to stand by their own playing styles based on what is best for player development. His pressing triggers can be summarized quite easily: not having the ball is arguably the only pressing trigger he has.
The supporters in many of his stops, Leeds and Bilbao in particular outside of his home country of Argentina, talk about him almost as a deity because the soccer he brings them is like nothing they have ever seen. It's not just that it's winning soccer; he left Bilbao and Chile with no trophies won.
It's a style that can be breathtakingly fast-paced, at times almost impossible to believe the players can play at this level. His demanding level of commitment to his way of playing brings the best out of many players, all of whom have never worked as hard before or after being coached by Bielsa. Fans love watching their teams give everything possible; with Bielsa it's the minimum expectation.
Bielsa also puts a lot of demands on those who he works for; he applies just as much upward pressure on the club as top-down pressure to his players. He left Lazio after two days because, in his estimation, certain players were supposed to be brought in by a certain date. That promise wasn't kept, and out the door he went.
After two days. You don't get the nickname El Loco easily.
All of us have had times at work where we may have wanted to do the same. Bielsa comes from a wealthy family, and this has enabled him throughout his career to not put up with anything he doesn't think meets his standards.
The standards are set just as high for himself as well. When taking charge of a new team, part of his acclimation process is watching every single game the team played in the previous season twice from start to finish with an analytical process that takes four hours per game.
His analysis has drawn him to articulate that there are 36 ways to communicate through a pass, 17 distinct defensive mechanisms, and 11 different ways of finishing. According to him, there are five different ways to create separation from a defender. Essentially, ten different formation shapes and so on. The level of detail he breaks the game down into is scarcely believable.
Bielsa also doesn't hide from anything; he's shockingly forthright in press conferences. When he was called out for spying on an opponent with Leeds, he called a press conference and laid out how he prepared for every game.
In that press conference, he admitted the amount of work his staff did for each game (which was insane amount of prep work) was not necessary and didn't make much difference. But he and his staff did all this work out of an obligation to be as prepared as possible for every game, to respect the opponent, and to feel as if they were doing all they could to succeed.
After Uruguay's embarrassing 5-1 loss to the United States in 2025, he flew back to Uruguay and held a nearly two-hour press conference. He said he refused to resign, criticized himself and his behavior, and vowed to put things right. If you can't stand coaches who make excuses, talk only in jargon, and deal out corporate PR speak dribble, you'll enjoy Bielsa's press conferences.
Bielsa recruited Pochettino as a young boy by stopping by his house after he had missed out on seeing him play late at night. He went with Poch's parents, looked into his room, saw his legs, and said he had the legs of a footballer and invited him to a trial. At that trial, he played Pochettino out of position at striker, stopped the session after five minutes, and signed him.
When Pep's Barcelona defeated Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao in the 2012 Copa Del Rey, Bielsa presented Pep with his scouting report of Barcelona as a gift. Pep told Bielsa "you know more about Barcelona than I do".
Bielsa also, allegedly, threatened a group of fans outside of his house with a live hand grenade. No one knows if that's true or not but with Bielsa, it sounds plausible.
There are many, many more stories, anecdotes, theories and best practices that have been written about Marcelo Bielsa. He has given much of his time to explaining all of his ideas about the game at coaching seminars; translated versions of these presentations are a must for any aspiring coach to seek out and absorb.
Bielsa has given the game of soccer honesty, emotion, respect, hard work, passion, brilliance, style, inspiration, and beauty. Uruguay have stumbled into the 2026 World Cup; many are questioning if Bielsa has what it takes to deliver a deep run into the knockout rounds as he carries on at the age of 70 years old.
It may be the last chance to see a living legend of this great game on its biggest stage. However it plays out, don't miss the chance to see Bielsa at this World Cup.
