Santiago Solari’s exclusive interview with The Athletic
Full text (thanks to SyrianskyS)
If Santiago Solari is bitter about the abrupt conclusion of his short spell in charge of Real Madrid, then he’s hiding it well.
“No, no,” he smiles during a wide-ranging exclusive interview with The Athletic. “It was completely normal. It was a great honour and a great responsibility to be asked to become manager. I always respected the decisions that were made. My commitment with Real Madrid is still the same. It doesn’t change just because my role changed. The core values of our club have to be represented in the same way. I always feel proud to represent this club.”
Maybe the fact he’s back on the club payroll as an ambassador is a factor but the warm and engaging Solari appears more interested in looking forward rather than back. He misses life on the training field. He’s considering his next move and is open to offers from across Europe.
He’s an avid watcher of the Premier League and the prospect of managing in England enthuses him. “Yes, I've always been a big fan,” he says when asked whether managing in the Premier League would appeal. “Football was born in England and you exported it all over the world. Even in Argentina, it was spread throughout the entire country partly as a result of the trains that the English built more than a century ago. Many of our clubs have English names like Newell's Old Boys or River Plate. The big tradition of football comes from you. “My father [Eduardo] was a football coach who worked in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Then, I had my career which took me all over the world as a footballer. At Real Madrid, I coached the younger age groups before moving up to the first team. You never know where football will take you. I'm certainly open to going to the Premier League. The league is fantastic. The level is so high, the highest level — that was proved by Liverpool and Tottenham reaching the Champions League final and Arsenal and Chelsea reaching the Europa League final last season. Every game is a party and the atmosphere is good in every stadium in England. It's beautiful.”
Nearly a year has passed since Solari was sacked by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez after a rollercoaster four months at the helm. Promoted from reserve-team boss initially as caretaker following the exit of Julen Lopetegui, the Argentine was appointed permanently on a two-and-a-half-year deal after winning his first four games in charge — the best start of any manager in the club's history. They went on to clinch the Club World Cup but Real's form dipped and all that early optimism swiftly evaporated. Three damaging setbacks in the space of a week proved his undoing. Elimination from the Copa del Rey at the hands of Barcelona was followed by another defeat to their arch rivals in La Liga before Real crashed out of the Champions League in the last 16 stage at the hands of Ajax. There was no way back. Having won 22 and lost eight of his 32 games in charge, Solari was dismissed, with his former team-mate Zinedine Zidane returning for a second spell in charge.
It had been some rise for the 43-year-old, from working in the youth ranks to half a season coaching the likes of Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos , Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale. “It's actually more difficult to coach in the younger divisions than to coach a first-division team who have been used to playing professionally for many years and are used to that environment, " he insists. "With kids, you have to adapt your set of skills and how you transmit the methodology of the training sessions. The younger the kids are, the more difficult it is. With the first team, the rules are there. Everyone knows why the rules are there. There's competition and everyone knows what's expected, the language you have in common with them. It's all about winning. With the kids, it's different. They're developing as footballers but they're also developing as human beings. With schools and families, they are involved in many different worlds. When you are a professional, your focus is only in one direction so that makes it easier.”
Solari had returned to Real Madrid as a youth coach in 2013 — some eight years after making the last of his 208 appearances for the club. Did the pressure of playing for Real prepare him for the scrutiny of life as manager?
"You can't compare it, " he says firmly. "Being the coach, it's completely different. As the coach, you live football 360 degrees. Your relationship with each one of the players is so important. It's not only about what they do during training sessions but what every one of them does outside of that — what they eat, how they rest, how they sleep, if they have problems with their families or their friends or their girlfriends, their relationship with the doctor, with the press and with your bosses. You have to watch your rivals. You have to develop tactical strategies and tactical solutions. You have to take care of the methodology. Then, there's the travel, the away trips, the hotels… it's non-stop responsibility. As a player? You just try to give the best of yourself in every training session and every game. Player and coach; they are two completely different worlds. "
Rosario-born Solari enjoyed a trophy-laden playing career which started in his homeland with Newell's Old Boys and Renato Cesarini before joining River Plate, who he helped to league and Copa Libertadores glory. In 1999, he headed to Europe to sign for Atletico Madrid before their relegation from La Liga the following year was followed by a move across the Spanish capital to sign for Real. Yet there was little animosity.
“It was quite natural for me. I was always very respectful of Atletico and I'm still fond of them,” he says. "They gave me the opportunity to play in Europe when I was very young coming from River Plate. I was always very respectful with their fans and they were always very respectful towards me. I even scored a couple of times at the Vicente Calderon playing for Real Madrid. I scored against Real Madrid playing for Atletico, too. I have a long story with 'El Derbi Madrileno'.
After a difficult start at the Bernabeu, Solari flourished under the guidance of manager Vicente del Bosque. He was there throughout the first 'Galacticos' era with the likes of Raul, Luis Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham. “Don't forget Roberto Carlos,” Solari interjects, before The Athletic can finish isting his illustrious former team-mates. “Everybody speaks about the forwards from that team but Roberto Carlos was a player from another world. I've never seen another left-back like him. He may have never won the Ballon d'Or but I can't think of a better left-back in history.”
"What was it like to be part of that team? It was very difficult to win a position on the pitch! There was so much competition. I met up recently with Savio Bortolini, who was part of that team too. Imagine the difficulty of earning a position when you have Zidane, Bortolini, Steve McManaman and Figo, fighting against all these to earn your minutes and your opportunities. Del Bosque was a fantastic manager. His managing of the group with all those big names was remarkable. He was key to our success.”
"At Real Madrid, the expectations are so high and the technical level of the players is so high that it's easy to feel inferior. You get compared to other players. Real Madrid has a history of bringing the best players in the world at that moment to the club. It was a challenge but it was a fantastic challenge. I had the best times -- five fantastic years as a player. The team was full of big players but it wasn't full of big egos. We worked very well as a team We had great chemistry and that, of course, was the secret to being successful.”
Some argued that Perez's "Galacticos" policy was motivated more by chasing commercial gains than buying what was really required to succeed on the field but Solari points to his medal collection from his time at Real, which includes two La Liga titles, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and two Spanish Super Cups.
"We won seven titles in that period,” he says proudly. "Yes, you could say we should have won another Champions League but they are very difficult to win. As a club, we have won 13, so I think we've done quite well in that competition.”
"Winning the Intercontinental Cup, which is now the Club World Cup, in 2002 was one of the happiest days of my life. I was so proud to win it again as manager in 2018. I couldn't be more grateful. For a South American player, to win that is the happiest thing in football. It's bigger than anything else. It's the tournament everyone waits for. I used to skip school as a kid to watch it when it was played in Japan. During my time at Real, we won every trophy there was to win and I think we played great football at the same time. It was a team that was fun to watch and because of the names of the players, it made a mark right across the world in the early 2000s."
Solari struck up a close friendship with Steve McManaman, who had arrived from Liverpool the year before him. “We had a great relationship. He's a fantastic guy. I love him,” he adds. “We became good friends and we're still in touch. Macca and I were room-mates back then. These days, they have a room each but back then, we shared. What a player he was. He's still very much loved by by Real Madrid fans. Not only because he was a very good player who scored many important goals for us but because he's a great guy, too. He has an open personality and is always fun to be with. I love him and people in Madrid love Macca too.”
Solari, who played most of his games for Real on the left of midfield, was happy to go under the radar and allow others to grab the headlines. "Of course. That team worked because McManaman was there, [Michel] Salgado was there, [Ivan] Helguera was there, [Claude] Makelele was there, [Fernando] Morientes was there. These names get a little bit forgotten but that's okay. That's the way football works. Those were the guys who made the team work. Without them, it wouldn't have been possible to win all those titles."
One of the finest nights of Solari's career was at Glasgow's Hampden Park in May 2002 when Real beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in the final of the Champions League. He was involved in one of the most iconic goals in the tournament's history. Solari's pass sent Roberto Carlos scampering away down the left and his looping cross was met by Zidane, whose stunning left-footed volley flew into the top corner. It proved to be the winner in the club's centenary year.
"That was an incredible night in a special year,” he recalls. "We had a lot of pressure to mark that anniversary in the right way. We needed to win a title. We had lost the the final of the Copa del Rey at the Bernabeu. Our last chance was against Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow. Back then, Leverkusen were a great team but we did it."
Zidane is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game, so was he the greatest Solari shared a dressing room with?
"It wouldn't be fair to say that, " he insists. "Ronaldo was fantastic too and I also played with [Uruguay icon) Enzo Francescoli at the beginning of my career [at River Plate]. He was one of the biggest players of his generation. Zidane and Ronaldo were probably the best of their generation."
In the summer of 2005, Solari moved to Inter, where he won three successive Serie A titles. Life under manager Roberto Mancini was never dull. Solari says: "Mancini was different a very Italian coach! Their way of watching football and thinking about football is cultural. They even call it another name: calcio! It's like their own game. That's the fantastic thing about football. In every country, they live it differently. In every country, you have people who say, ‘This is football, this is what we like'.”
“It didn't used to be much about possession in England but that's changed now with foreign coaches coming in. Usually, English football football is more intense; it never stops. In Spain, it's more about keeping the ball and trying to search for the spaces. It's more patient. In Italy, the focus is mainly on defending and counter-attacking, playing very tactically and being defensively-organised. They put their focus there. I learned from all those experiences. That Inter Milan team was a great team. I like more attacking football but I learned a lot in Italy."
There, Solari shared a dressing room with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a teenage Mario Balotelli among others. "Zlatan is a character, " he chuckles. "He thinks he's the best in history. I don't think he's the best in history but I do respect his opinion! I like Zlatan. He's been very good and he still is. He has never lacked confidence and is probably the best striker of his generation in Italian football.”
"I was very lucky throughout my career with the teammates I had. At Inter, we had Adriano and [Julio] Cruz in attack too. Then there was Figo, [Dejan] Stankovic, Maicon, Maxwell, [Esteban] Cambiasso, [Francesco] Toldo, [Marco] Materazzi… fantastic."
Solari, who won 11 caps for his country, returned to Argentina to play for San Lorenzo in 2008 and had spells in Mexico and Uruguay before hanging up his boots and moving into coaching.
He was a guest of FIFA at the Club World Cup in Qatar in December and watched Liverpool crowned winners for the first time in their history. He has kept close tabs on Jurgen Klopp's record-breaking team ever since. “What Klopp has done at Liverpool is fantastic,” he adds. “I like him personally. He's such a charismatic coach. I've admired him since his time at Dortmund. You could tell then he had great qualities. He has created something special at Liverpool. He got the team to play in a way that the Liverpool fans love. He has respected the culture of the club with the attacking type of football he has put in place. That's very important to match your intentions as a coach with the history of the club that you are coaching. I think he's done that so well. This is a great moment in the history of a club which has enjoyed many great moments previously."
How about the prospect of locking horns with Klopp in the Premier League in the near future?
"At the moment, I'm very happy in the job I've got at Real Madrid but I am a coach," he says. "The next chapter will come when it is the right moment for me and when it is the right club."
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