Marcelo Bielsa held what may have been one of world football’s most extraordinary news conferences on Thursday evening. Facing increased pressure to resign as Uruguay’s manager, Bielsa spoke to reporters in Montevideo for one hour and 45 minutes, instead declaring his intention to lead the South American side to the 2026 World Cup.
After a humiliating 5-1 loss against the United States in a friendly on Tuesday, Bielsa was pressed on whether the Uruguayan players had lost faith in his messaging and if his impersonal man-management style had become a bad fit for the group. “I’m a generator of tension,” Bielsa said. “When I arrive, the environment becomes tense. That’s why I appear infrequently.
“I’m toxic,” he continued. “To associate yourself with me makes you worse off. Do you understand me? There are toxic types who only see the errors that they are correcting, who are demanding, who are never satisfied with anything. He talks only about the work he is doing. When he goes out to eat, he reads the newspaper because he doesn’t want to integrate with those around him, so that he doesn’t have to talk about things that distract him from all that. Don’t think I enjoy it. For me, it’s karma.”
That toxicity is the product of a fear of losing, Bielsa said. After he reiterated his responsibility for one of the most embarrassing losses in Uruguay’s history, the 70-year-old showed a side of himself that the public rarely sees. He opened up about his personality and footballing methodologies like never before. It was theatre, but it is debatable whether his display helped him or further eroded his trust with Uruguayans.
“I am shy, obsessive. I’m a robotic person,” he said. “I don’t like clutter. Those are my flaws. I find it difficult to act free-spirited and friendly.”
But despite his admissions, Bielsa made a point of saying football cannot be played without feeling. “I firmly, firmly believe that emotion is the effect that spreads the most, that allows for the most growth of virtue.”
A story followed about a joke he tried to tell his players that fell flat. And how some of his players refer to him as “el abuelito” (the grandfather).
Bielsa then described how he recently heard “one of the best songs about football” he has come across. He said a song titled A los Cuadros Chicos by Uruguayan murga and tango singer Washington Luna (known as Canario Luna) had “driven me crazy.” The lyrics are about the innocence and purity of being a fan of a lower-division club.
‘Los hinchas de cuadros chicos arrancan en un camión. Con la bandera en los hombros. Atadita a una ilusión.
(The fans of small teams race off in their trucks. With a flag over their shoulders, tied to a dream.)
‘Se llevan un almohadon. Pasean de cancha en cancha con su radio transistor. Reservan un diario viejo de aquel año que subio.’
(The most seasoned fans stroll from stadium to stadium with a cushion in hand, carrying their transistor radio. They’ve saved the newspaper from the year they went up.)
Marcelo Bielsa spoke to the media for one hour and 45 minutes. (Dante Fernandez / AFP via Getty Images)
“The truck carrying (them) … I mean, you have to be made of wood if you’re not to be moved by that, if you love football,” said Bielsa.
He played the song for his players before an important match that he did not specify in detail. “Now the internet shows you the lyrics,” Bielsa said innocently. “And I told the players, ‘Listen to this. Listen to this, because it’s a massive boost. Because when we were kids, we loved football.’
“When we were kids, a bottle cap and a blank wall were a ball and a goal. The entrance to a house’s garage, a tomato or a zucchini that was left there by the grocer passing by, was a goal and a ball. That is the past of all of us who love football. And when one goes back to that past, it’s much better. The professional football player was nourished by amateurism.
“Obviously, you know how the proportions of that equation are playing out. Unconditional love for the game. Paid love for the game … more and more, the players know they need to return to that amateur self to be better professional players, and they find the national team to be the best scenario. It doesn’t matter to them if they earn money or don’t earn money.
“They come because they are looking for that. So, how am I not going to value the message of emotion, of one’s state of mind, of togetherness? I am Argentine, do you understand? To experience all this, you have to be Uruguayan. You cannot be Argentine and have the pretence of what history inoculated you with and how it made you feel a certain way.”
After the Uruguayan Football Federation (AUF) scheduled a news conference on Wednesday evening, speculation regarding Bielsa’s future reached a fever pitch. Pundits and fans in Uruguay demanded his resignation. Prominent journalists in the country claimed the players were exhausted and had grown tired of the culture.
One nightly sports talk television program went to the extreme to say no one could fix the broken psyches of the players. Broadcaster Alberto Perez’s rant was particularly amusing.
“This is rock bottom! Can you believe that the United States danced all over us?” he asked. “The United States! Kids there want to be actors when they grow up. They want to be like Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson and Brad Pitt. They want to play basketball, baseball and ice hockey. Football is the fourth, fifth or sixth sport there! Ever since Pelé played there in 1975, they’ve tried to install football and it doesn’t work there.”
Perez’s colleague then chimed in. “Someone needs to deny Bielsa’s entrance to Uruguay. Don’t let him back in. Ask (President Donald) Trump to deny Bielsa a visa for the World Cup. He cannot coach us at the World Cup!”
On Thursday, Bielsa ended all possibilities of a premature exit. “I have the desire to keep going,” he said. “If I ever thought about resigning, it wasn’t at this moment. Losing 5-1 is something that we cannot ignore. One feels humiliated after a result like this.“
Bielsa was asked about Luis Suárez’s revealing interview following last summer’s Copa América in the U.S. Uruguay were eliminated by Colombia in a tense and physical semifinal in Charlotte, North Carolina. The match was marred when a group of Uruguayan and Colombian fans clashed violently in the stands.
Uruguay players Darwin Núñez, Rodrigo Bentancur, José María Giménez, Mathías Olivera and Ronald Araújo came to blows with Colombian supporters. Núñez attempted to throw a metal chair into the crowd. He would receive a five-match international ban from CONMEBOL, the South American governing body.
“There were situations that occurred at the Copa America that hurt to see, that I didn’t talk about for the good of the group,” Suárez told DSports in October of 2024. “It’s going to continue to happen. The players are going to reach a limit and explode. At the Copa America, players told me, ‘Luis, I’ll play the Copa America and then I won’t play again’.”
Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde said shortly after Suárez’s interview that everything the striker had said was true.
“Suárez said what he said, and it had the effect that it had,” Bielsa said. “I never responded to each of the claims he gave, but I did talk about it internally with the players. What happened that time is not what we were accustomed to, or at least what I was accustomed to happening — that complaints would be made public instead of in a private setting. But all that passed. I don’t hold a grudge or seek revenge. I remember Suárez not for what he said about me, but for what he gave to the progress of that Copa América, which for me was very important.”
Bielsa said he has received several complaints about his behavior from within the orbit of the Uruguayan national team. He then asked out loud whether that was a good thing to say after a 5-1 defeat. He was asked if he would consider changing his 4-3-3 system. Another reporter confronted Bielsa for admitting he does not have a Plan B to solve Uruguay’s attacking woes. The team has scored only four goals in the past five matches.
Bielsa was appointed in May 2023. He was expected to restore the national team’s prestige and warrior-like mentality after the South American side failed to advance from the group stage at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. His record with Uruguay is 17 wins (including two shootout victories), nine draws and six losses. That is hardly a failure.
Uruguay recorded wins against Argentina and Brazil during this World Cup qualifying cycle. They finished fourth in CONMEBOL’s standings, tied with Colombia, Brazil and Paraguay on 28 points from the 18 matches. But the loss to the U.S. felt like a breaking point.
Uruguay were beaten 5-1 by the USMNT this week. (Cliff Welch / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Bielsa clearly heard the noise and decided to face it on Thursday.
He held firm, telling reporters that after meeting with AUF officials for several hours on Wednesday, he was asked to continue in charge of the national team until next summer’s World Cup. But the reporters on Thursday were relentless. One reporter objected to the way the Uruguay team is covered when Bielsa questioned supposed rumors about the environment around the squad.
“We travel and accompany the national team any way we can,” the reporter said. “I’ve never seen a training session. I cannot validate or confirm things because I’m not there to see it.” Bielsa’s response provided another moment of comic relief.
“When I was Chile’s coach, this same complaint was made,” said Bielsa. “I thought, ‘F***, this might be true.’ I had false teeth at the time, my front teeth. One day, I allowed the journalists to watch an entire training session. I put them in a position of privilege, almost literally on the pitch. I wasn’t wearing my teeth that day and the next day, the front pages of every Chilean newspaper featured pictures of me with no teeth in my mouth.”
Bielsa will stay on to lead Uruguay to next summer’s World Cup finals.
His objective from today until the next international window in March will be to fix the team’s toothless attack.
It appears his position is safe, for now.
