7 incredible stories of Carlos Bilardo in his latest adventure as technical director

— Geleri, Geleri, in which team do you want to play, tell me, in which team?

- How, Carlos?

-What did you hear, what team do you want to play in?

-In Argentina, Carlos

- And why do you have the Brazilian flag? It can't be. From Argentina or Brazil?

-But, Carlos, that's how the flip-flops are, it's the brand

-But you have to choose, you have to choose, tapala, tapala

Geleri (which is none other than Marcos Angeleri) met with the proposal when he walked around the Balneario 12, at a high of the Estudiantes preseason, in the summer of 2004. A Carlos Bilardo dabbed in sunscreen (to the point that the players, underneath, called him “the joker”) criticized the defender, one of his proteges in his management, for the lack of attachment to the homeland of his footwear. Resigned, Angeleri retired to the locker room and returned to the beach with a piece of tape covering the Brazilian flag that adorns the flip flops of the famous brand.

It was back in 2003, when the average began to worry Estudiantes de La Plata, their Estudiantes, when Carlos Salvador Bilardo, goaded by the pincharrata community could not refuse fate. “Flaco Poletti came, they called me the Witch Verón from England and Martín Palermo from Spain”, he revealed with the diver. At the age of 65, he took over for the fourth time as advisor of the platense club with which he won the title at the Metropolitano in 1982, which catapulted him into the National Team. It was the last stage of the Doctor on the bench of substitutes, beyond that he later continued to be linked to football as manager of the national team and journalist, in addition to abbreviating in other activities, such as politics and acting.

Faithful to his style, enhanced by the years and his obsessions, Bilardo poured out occurrences and follies with his label, but he also fulfilled the goal of leaving Estudiantes in Primera and leaving a base with several juveniles who, in 2006, would end up becoming champion in Primera under the tutelage of Diego Simeone as coach. Players such as Marcelo Carrusca, Marcos Gelabert, José Sosa or Mariano Pavone passed through their hands. And they enjoyed (and suffered) their particular methods. On the day of the Doctor's 84th birthday, some unmissable stories of his last stage as technical director.

A PRESEASON BASED ON AUSTERITY

Estudiantes footballers came down from the mic cautiously, watching the panorama with some disbelief. The squad arrived in Mar del Plata for the preseason and in front of them was the Hotel Varna, two stars, two floors, 21 rooms. Humble, but cozy. There they were going to stay for the basic jobs for the return to the competition.

“We are fine, a little tight, but good,” said Bilardo to the media that covered in Punta Mogotes, more accustomed to the comfort that surrounds elite clubs on their travels. Several televisions came down from the mic that confirmed the assumption: the rooms did not have a TV; the lobby did have a 29 inch in front of a generous armchair, to share the moments of leisure. On the side, a classic Siam refrigerator offered a vintage touch.

The first impression helped the footballers to get used to. Many times they even rushed to the premises where they were training, in the area of the port of La Feliz. The mike frolicked outside the hotel. And if someone unsuspecting entered the accommodation at night, at the lobby desk, instead of an employee, he would find Bilardo on the phone, going on the air for his radio program, just as naturally as he did it from the studio. The whole day was dedicated to the squad and its preparation. If any journalist wanted an interview with development with El Narigón, he should schedule it... at dawn. Big nose full time.

AT NIGHT YOU TRAIN BETTER

The anecdote belongs to Gonzalo Klusener and he told it in La Voz del Interior. “When we returned from Mar del Plata, Bilardo was desperate asking for strikers and they weren't bringing them to him. One Thursday, after a double shift in which we ended up 'shot', he said to me: 'Russian, today at 22.30, already supper, they have to be here with Eloy (Colombano) and (Dante) Senger'. So around 19, after training, we went to the boarding house and around 22.20 we were taken back to the court. We wondered what this one would come up with (by Bilardo). We arrived at the door of the concentration and after a while they fell into a couple of cars Bilardo, Brown, Lemme and the physical trainer,” the story prologged.

“'Come on, come in. We're going to watch the game between River and Racing on TV, '” he told us. That day La Gata (Gastón) Fernández played, who had gone from River to Racing, and scored a goal. In the first half he marked the movements of the strikers and, when halftime came, he told us to go change to the locker room. We didn't understand anything. When we arrived there were the clothes, with the ankle boots down. 'Ankle boots? ' , we asked the prop man. 'Yes, the Doctor asked me to leave them, 'he replied. We changed and went back to the office. 'Sit down. We watch the second half and then we're going to train, 'said Bilardo. We looked at each other with the boys and thought he was crazy. At midnight there was no lighted court for training. He took us to a tip of the country, where we barely saw it, we got warm and then he stopped Lemme, Brown and the teacher in a line of three, to show us how we had to move and get around a defense with that disposition. It was 12 o'clock in the evening! We were there for about an hour and a bit, and he was teaching us how to lift the ball to the defenders to the knees, not the sides, to overcome them and commit penalties. Bilardo is like that. A character”, he concluded.

DJ BILARDO'S MUSICAL MARATHONS

The Authentic Decadents, Bersuit Vergarabat, La Mosca, Band XXI. Bilardo handled the tactical exercises and also the DJ tray, multifaceted. In Estudiantes, Carlos Salvador patented the “training musical marathons”. Practices that lasted between seven and 11 hours, some more numerous and others less; with more specific or general jobs. And, in the background, the music, cheerful, motivating, with a playlist chosen by an expert dancer who even knew how to show his goodness at carnivals.

“Music is to break the monotony in the Country and motivate the players a little,” he said about his peculiar method. The longest of his marathons began at 9 in the morning and ended after 20. Each footballer went through 10 trials during that exhausting day. “You can't get tired, because you do what you like,” argued the Nose, dropping his troop down.

SELF-DISMISSAL AND THE CITY BELL PRISON

February 2004. Students lost 4-1 to Independiente in their stadium of 1 and 57. For Bilardo, a coach who in the middle of the title celebration in Mexico 86 was not allowed to celebrate for the goals conceded in the final against Germany, the defeat represented a deep stab wound, impossible to heal. So much emotional charge, such a level of self-criticism, pushed him to make a famous statement.

“I am to blame for the defeat. What's more: if I were the president of the club he called me and said: 'Go away'. It's just that four goals like that can't be done to you, and if everything goes wrong then the coach is to blame, who in this case is me. If I were the president, I'll be thrown out,” he let out, at the laughter contained before the syncericide.

“After we got a corner in favor, they can't score you a goal, that's something that never happened to me. One goal, well, go and pass, but four...”, he continued to flagellate himself. Bilardo did not say goodbye to himself, but he did apply a punishment: he locked himself up in the country of City Bell to “not waste time on travel”. There he was seen by the serene, walking through the courts in the dark, after presenting his radio program by telephone looking for solutions at dawn to the wave of insomnia.

ANGELERI, THE FRUSTRATED SINGER

Marcos Angeleri was the protagonist of another of the Doctor's follies. Miguel Ángel Lemme, his field assistant, was responsible for recounting the staging. “At the rally there was Carlos's room, then mine came, and Angeleri's. I had taught him the props to play the guitar. I made him sing to Angeleri. Once Carlos got angry, he ran out and we won. And I told Carlos that we had to do it again, because we had won. Then I made Angeleri sing, he would yell at her and the little boy would run out”, detailed the choreography, which was repeated like a loop. “These are beautiful things that we live next to the master”, completed the Cabezón, who even the cabals generate nostalgia.

THE MAGIC WAY

Bilardo, an icon of Estudiantes, was willing to offer all his knowledge and his esoteric artillery so that the club remained in the elite. “We were going out to run outside the Country, going to the opposite side of Camino Negro. When we crossed a road, there was a dead road and a tip was sticking out. And he always stood there when we came back from running. And one Sunday he says to me: 'Come, let's go find a boy. ' I had spoken to the prop man and they brought in an employee who had an autogenus. He cut off a piece of track and put it under the bed where he slept, until we were saved from the descent. And then he took her home. Because he said the tracks were lucky. A piece of track of one meter, eh, bent at the tip”, described the incredible movement El Cabezón Lemme, not surprised because, of course, he knew all his repertoire.

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