His arrival is official: Mauricio Pochettino, PSG's hope to win the Champions League | The State
Mauricio Pochettino is killing several birds with one stone with his arrival at Paris Saint-Germain: fulfilling one of his dreams, leading to one of the best schools in the world And incidentally, almost with the certainty that at PSG, Yes, you can get the first title of your career.
“Coaching Paris Saint-Germain is one of my dreams”. Those words were pronounced by the Argentine coach in April 2016, when it was not suspected that that goal would one day become a reality.
At 48 years old, the Argentine faces his greatest challenge on a bench, direct the multimillion-dollar project in Paris, perhaps the club with the most money in the world, a task worthy of its prestige, not from your resume.
Because if Pochettino has built a good reputation, his record as a coach has not been released in any of his three previous experiences, something that will have more at your fingertips gthanks to the cast of stars captained by Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.
But most of all, Murphy’s technician returns to a club where he succeeded as a player, although now little resembles the one that welcomed him between 2001 and 2003.
Mauricio Pochettino is the new coach of PSG and becomes the first NON-EUROPEAN coach to coach the French team in its entire history. 😮https: //t.co/XUe9r2B0w1 pic.twitter.com/tsmIWyLEau
– Sportscenter in Spanish (@SportsCenter_nt) January 2, 2021
Then gave up Espanyol, the club that had taken him to Europe following the call of Luis Fernández, who was looking for a fierce boss for his defense.
Of those years his warrior mentality, his sergeant personality is still remembered that led him to get the captain’s armband of a PSG who played in the final of the 2003 French Cup and he won the 2001 Intertoto.
That footprint continues on the banks of the Seine and is what has made him return to replace the German Thomas Tuchel, along with the imprint he was able to give Tottenham between 2014 and November 2019, where without much financial means he led the team to the 2015 Cup final, to the runner-up in 2017 and, above all, to the final of the 2019 Champions League.
That unexpected feat did not give him much credit because some months later the poor results of the team forced him to give up the job to Portuguese Jose Mourinho.
In London they made it clear that Pochettino is one of those coaches who cares about the aesthetics of the game without neglecting the result, a task that he will be able to tackle better with the weapons of PSG than with those he had in the Tottenham, Southampton or Espanyol, which was also his first experience on the bench.
Pochettino could be considered a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa, who trained him at Newell’s Old Boys, where he made his debut in 1988 at the age of 16 and where in 1991 and 1992 he won the title, which opened the doors of Europe for him.
The last Argentine coach who had gone through Ligue 1 was Bielsa at Lille (formerly OM), the same one who brought Pochettino to Newell’s and with whom he won the Clausura in 1992 and reached the final of the Libertadores against São Paulo. Now Poche will take his witness in France. pic.twitter.com/F4xxz98suG
– Andrés Onrubia Ramos (@AndiOnrubia) January 2, 2021
Al Espanyol managed to save him in 2009 when they gave him the reins of a dying club and he did the same in 2013 with Southampton, since after avoiding the descent led to eighth position the following season, the best in its history.
In 2014, he signed for Tottenham, a more important project that made it shine by propelling the club back to the top of the continent.
He had to finish that final against Liverpool, but his way to that final of the Champions League, which was played in Madrid, was a launching pad for your reputation. Above all, the semi-final comeback against Ajax Amsterdam, which Tottenham fans will not forget.
All this will now have to be put at the service of one of the most complex changing rooms in the world. Deal with the stars, rsponsor the ambitions of the Qatari owners, return the illusion to the stands, which lost it a bit after the final of the Champions League last year, provide PSG with a gaming identity that Tuchel failed to find,… His tasks are not few, but finally Pochettino He has a project with which he can release his record.
20 years later … A new challenge for Mauricio Pochettino at PSG: the Argentine coach was a player for the Parisian team from 2001 to 2003. He signed a contract until 2023. pic.twitter.com/oZBj5lP8PF
– SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) January 2, 2021
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