Hijacking LaLiga

Euan McTear

Description

For years, Barcelona and Real Madrid maintained a firm grip on the country's and the continent's silverware, but Los Rojiblancos have managed to turn La Liga into a three-team league, with the help of a fiery Argentine coach, a squad of cast-offs, an electric home support, and an overarching commonsense financial plan. In 2000, the capital city side had suffered their first relegation from the top flight since 1930, but just 14 years later they would be crowned La Liga champions. Euan McTear explores the key moments, decisions, goal,s and matches in their extraordinary resurgence, one which has converted Atletico Madrid into one of world soccer's most powerful clubs.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785313622
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2017
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Euan McTear, 2017
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-313-4 eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-362-2
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Champions
Chapter 2: The Catalyst
Chapter 3: The Capital
Chapter 4: The Mentality
Chapter 5: The Coaching
Chapter 6: The Academy
Chapter 7: The Captain
Chapter 8: The Superstars
Chapter 9: The Battlers
Chapter 10: The Finances
Chapter 11: The Support
Chapter 12: The Future
Photographs
Acknowledgements
I AM lucky enough to have so many people to thank on this page for their generous contributions to this book of time, knowledge and advice.
Firstly, I d like to thank my girlfriend Rebecca and parents David and Petrina for their support and encouragement. This book wouldn t have been possible without them.
Those who took the time to share their experiences of Atl tico with me and to offer their support in various ways, in alphabetical order: Emilio Abej n, Bruno Alemany, Joe Alexander, Phil Ball, Rub n Cano, Fernando Carre o Oca a, Chris Clements, Dermot Corrigan, Robbie Dunne, Jos Ignacio Fern ndez Navarro, Richard Fitzpatrick, Luis Fuentes, Fran Guill n, Tania Mart n, Javier G mez Matallanas, Colin Millar, Marcela Mora y Araujo, Jos scar Plaza Buj n, Somnath Saha, Omar Saleem.
David Garrido, who was kind enough to pen this book s foreword, sharing his own experience of the team s recent success, and who has been supportive in many more ways than can be seen on these pages.
ngel Rivero, who has witnessed Atl tico s recent rise through his camera lens and whose historic images are found in the centre of this book.
Paul and Jane at Pitch Publishing for working with me again on this inspiring story, Gareth Davis for editing, and also to Duncan Olner, who designed the colour-bursting front cover.
And finally, thanks must go to all the players, coaches and directors at Atl tico, who acted this story out in such a gripping way that I had something to write about. Just a few years ago nobody believed a story like this could be written. Now, here it is.
Foreword
T HIS is a piece of work I immensely looked forward to reading. The most significant recent narrative in the history of elite Spanish club football has been the challenge that Atl tico Madrid have laid down over the last decade, to try to break up the stranglehold of Barcelona and Real Madrid, not only in LaLiga and in the Copa del Rey but also in European competition.
With Atl tico starting to gain a foothold on that battlefield in the mid-2000s with a first Champions League qualification in 12 years, the impressive form of Diego Forl n and the emergence of future superstars Sergio Ag ero and David de Gea, one of the real turning points was the appointment of Quique S nchez Flores. It was his side that I witnessed with my own eyes win their first major European trophy in almost half a century, having covered Fulham s run to the Europa League Final, where they ran into Los Rojiblancos and ultimately succumbed late in extra time.
What I saw there on that night in Hamburg was a resilient, redoubtable outfit with a prolific, irresistible goalscorer in Forl n. A team who had come through three ties on away goals, and who had somehow discovered a different level of self-belief to their predecessors. The seed had been planted, but who would have thought that this was just the start of something bigger? Far bigger.
Eighteen months later it was the arrival of Diego Simeone that propelled Atl tico to even headier heights - the return of a former player who utterly embodied the spirit of the club. And ironically, while the Champions League eluded Spanish teams in his first two seasons, Simeone was making up further ground and picking up silverware, both domestically and on the continent. The gap was narrowing, and quicker than anyone expected.
With that momentum, it s no surprise to me that a captivating character like El Cholo fostered that siege mentality and inspired his players to even greater efforts, including a first LaLiga title in 18 years and two Champions League finals, but it is still a shock. Disrupting the hegemony is hard enough when it s just one club you have to beat, but near impossible when it s two.
So those are the facts - ones that everyone knows if you have any decent interest in Spanish football. But you need stories to flesh out the stats, to give the all-important context and anecdotal detail to truly tell a story, and tell people things they didn t know. This is where Euan comes in.
His first book, Eibar the Brave , focused on a not dissimilar tale at its root: a club who found a way to upset the established order, who achieved extraordinary things, but who also set that benchmark as their new level and changed what was aspired to and what was accepted. Atl tico s rise and rise is a compelling narrative, but it is Euan s combination of tireless research and stylish storytelling which has made this a successful project to take on, as well as I m sure a very satisfying one.
It s the perfect time to release this book in 2017, with the club stable thanks to foreign investors who understand the identity of Atl tico, but also with their rock in Simeone and their jewel in Antoine Griezmann pledging to continue their stays to build on their successes at a time when they move into a new stadium, the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano. Could their greatest exploits be just around the corner? The building blocks are certainly in place, but the challenges also remain just as great.
Euan s work is one that has to be applauded, as he too is growing as a writer and broadcaster. I wish him all the best of luck with this and all his future work. Bien hecho, t o .
David Garrido
London June 2017
Introduction
I N the magical soap opera of football, occasionally a David conquers a Goliath. That s the beauty of the sport. Rarely, though, can an underdog hold their own against two Goliaths, yet that is exactly what Atl tico Madrid did in the 2013/14 season when they finished ahead of both Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two biggest football clubs in the world, after a full 38-game league campaign.
Most considered that impossible, but Diego Simeone and his squad merely viewed it as improbable. The clich of approaching the season game by game was applied and, by the end of it all, all of those points added up to make them champions. They were just a couple of minutes from combining it with a Champions League title too.
Underdog stories have long fascinated me, just as Eibar s did when I wrote Eibar the Brave in 2015, which told the story of how a miniature team from a tiny town in the Basque valleys won promotion to LaLiga.
Atl tico s tale is similarly extraordinary, just on a larger magnitude, but it wasn t too long ago that the capital city team was playing Eibar in the second division of Spanish football, having been relegated in the year 2000. Just 14 years later, they were champions of Spain and I was beyond curious to work out how they d managed to complete such a seismic turnaround in their fortunes.
This book explains how they built something special from the ashes of that disaster. In my first chapter, The Champions , I recount exactly what it is that Atl tico have achieved. They won a league title, but they did far more than that and, by continuing to compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid over the following seasons, they dismissed the notion that LaLiga is a two-team league. In the following ten chapters, I investigate the various aspects of the club which contributed to these achievements. Finally, in The Future , I look into football s crystal ball and wonder just how sustainable Atl tico s success can be.
Whether or not the club does indeed keep winning titles and frustrating Barcelona and Real Madrid, the trophies they ve already won can never be taken away from them. Here is Atl tico Madrid s 21st-century story.
Euan McTear
Madrid
June 2017
The Champions
We managed to turn a team that had been relegated into the league champion.
Filipe Lu s
The biggest achievement for Atl tico Madrid is that they can now be compared to Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Pep Guardiola
Life is never more fun than when you re the underdog competing against the giants.
Ross Perot
Saturday, 17 May 2014. Camp Nou, Barcelona
Barcelona. Barcelona. Real Madrid. Real Madrid. Barcelona. Barcelona. Barcelona. Real Madrid. Barcelona. LaLiga had undeniably become a duopoly and for the previous nine years the championship had been passed between just two of Spain s trophy cabinets. Not only that, but it had been five years since any other team had even come within 20 points of the champions. If the cup wasn t sporting blue and red ribbons, it was dressed in white. On the final day of the 2013/14 season, the league was once again won in the Catalan capital, with the fans of Barcelona on their feet applauding the champions. So far, so on script.
This time, though, La Blaugrana s players were crying tears of despair, not of joy. They hadn t retained their title and the ovation was not for them. Instead, it was for the players of Atl tico Madrid, the underdog who had just br