Old friends reunited! Simeone and Almeida: the most intimate duel, accompanying each other throughout their lives

Hupu News on October 31st Atletico Madrid and Sevilla will face off in La Liga this weekend. For the coaches of both sides, this is an unusual game because friends are reunited.

There are not many people that Simeone can understand so deeply, because he spent most of his career, whether at club or with the Argentine national team, alongside current Sevilla coach Almeida. The pinnacle of their careers, and the place where they gained the most success, was in Lazio in Serie A. Both were the midfield pillars of the team and both belonged to a historic team. They won Serie A, the Coppa Italia, the Italian Super Cup and the European Super Cup.

Although both men represented the Argentine national team in two World Cups (1998 and 2002), they failed to win a championship with the Argentine senior national team; however, they were teammates on the Olympic team that won the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

It can be said that they have been together almost all their lives. They shared the same room during Lazio training camps and occasionally in the national team. And their personalities clearly conflict. "I lived with him and Simeone always went to bed very early because he followed the European schedule. And I... would smoke my cigarette at night. Obviously, he would protest, but with my character I would try to blow it all at him and let him 'suck' it too (laughter)," Almeida explained in an interview.

While serving as technical director, Almeida signed Simeone's eldest son Giovanni Simeone for Banfield. Obviously, for Almeida, Simeone is an important reference in his coaching career, and he admitted this when he landed in La Liga. Reporters' questions at the time also focused on this. Does Almeida want to become Sevilla's Simeone? At that point, Almeida recounted things like how even though they had things in common, they were also very different. "Simeone is a great coach, and there is a fine line between a great coach and football's 'patient', and Simeone is the latter," he said at the time, referring to the Atletico Madrid boss' obsession with pre-game preparation.

"Hopefully I can achieve at Sevilla what he did at Atletico Madrid, " added Almeida, who revealed that he could have been Simeone's assistant when the latter started coaching. In 2006, he almost became Simeone's assistant coach and even accepted the offer, but reneged on that afternoon as he realized he wanted to become the head coach and play for a while longer.

"I was still playing football at the time, and I promised him, but in the afternoon I went back on my word and told him no. In addition to our different views on football, I also wanted to play for a while, and my intention was not to be an assistant, but a head coach, so I thanked him, but in the end I did not go," he commented. "When Simeone started coaching, he called me to join his team, but I was not in the right shape to do that," he recalled when he joined Sevilla.

Simone is clear that Almeida will become a great coach. "It was always clear to me that he would end up coaching the team because I saw important qualities in him. Almeida is a coach that I like, he is courageous and clear-minded, he always transmits passion, hard work, tenacity and above all belief to his team. This is important because I have always believed that the difference in coaching is our ability to make players believe in what we want. And he is one of those coaches who can convince players with his philosophy, as he has proven everywhere he goes, " he noted of Almeida.