Almeida: “At River you needed a result to live calmly – I don’t lie in football”

The decision to become her coach River Plate in one night, said o Matias Almeida!

Her technician AEK in an interview he gave to the channel “The Coaches’ Voice” on Youtube, he recounted the story of… hanging up his football boots, becoming River manager during a very difficult time and learning valuable lessons for his coaching career.

Initially, “Pelado” talked about his return to River saying: “I returned to River at the age of 35 to finish my career as a footballer. In the team where I lived, in the team where I worked, in the team where I matured, in the team where I was created as a player and a person. It was my wish to finish here.

Two years later, it was a very crucial double match against Belgrano. Whoever prevailed would remain in the first division and whoever lost would be relegated».

He then reflected on his overnight decision to become a coach: “Finally, we fell. We had a lot of problems, it was the first relegation in River’s history, it was something very sad, something very bad. All that night I was thinking. And in the morning I went to the president, Daniel Passarella, and told him that I want to become a coach.

I didn’t have a training program or a staff ready and within 15 days we started the preparation. It was difficult, I was the coach of my former teammates. A difficult time, it was 7 years in one, all the psychological damage, all the passion we experienced. I realized all the mistakes I made, but in the end, we made it».

He said about how he works as a technician:As a coach, I study a lot. I’m obsessed with the things I like. I don’t stop planning, calculating, straining my mind. I never stop working inside my head. I didn’t have the experience of a ready coach like most, but I would put on the table everything I had seen in football, what I liked.

So, I never forgot that I was a gamer, because there are things that you don’t like when you’re playing. And the footballer doesn’t like being lied to. I never lie in football».

Finally, he said of that season as River manager: “That was no ordinary season, like I said, it was 7 years in one. You couldn’t go out to eat with your family, you couldn’t have a free Sunday. It was training and home. We lived it with passion. To avoid problems you needed a result so you could live peacefully.

It was an excessive passion. I didn’t agree with all of it but it helped me gain knowledge. I used it as knowledge and today everywhere I go, I go because I am happy. Because I am satisfied, because I believe the things they tell me” were the words of Matias Almeidas on “The Coaches’ Voice” channel.

Edited by: Christos Lois