Atlanta United President Darren Eales, when envisioning a list of candidates to become the MLS expansion team's first manager, never thought of Gerardo Martino.
Men who have managed Barcelona and Argentina, as Martino has done, aren’t usually tied to teams in MLS, much less expansion teams in the improving league.
But the interesting thing about soccer, as Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio said while in Atlanta this summer, is that a manager is sometimes just a few losses away from becoming available.
Such was what what happened with Martino, only he resigned in early July after Argentina lost to Chile in the finals of the Copa America for the second consecutive year.
Less than four months later, Martino was introduced as Atlanta United's new manager on Wednesday at the World of Coca-Cola in Centennial Park. He will work in a country in which he has never managed a team. It's a country in which he has vacationed but never lived. The professional and cultural challenges are obvious. Martino, 53, said he is thrilled by the challenges.
“I’m very happy to be in Atlanta and to join Atlanta United,” Martino said in English before switching to Spanish.
The hire was of such impact in the world of soccer that 20 camera crews, including Univsion from Miami and ESPN from Bristol, Conn., and more than 25 U.S.-based journalists attended. The press conference was broadcast live globally on facebook.
That heightened level of interest was one of the reasons why Eales was skeptical when Martino reached out to him about the job. Eales didn't use the word leverage, but he said lots of potential coaches and players have reached out in the past, only to fade away. Eales wants people at the club who are enthusiastic about being pioneers.
But, knowing this might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance and remembering a lesson taught to him by Daniel Levy when both worked at Tottenham Hotspur in England’s Premier League, Eales wanted to move quickly and meet with Martino face-to-face. He and Atlanta United technical director Carlos Bocanegra flew to Rosario in Martino’s native Argentina in late July.
“We knew from a personality fit, a football philosopy fit that Tata would be of real interest to Atlanta United,” Eales said.
They met for lunch at noon.
Eales and Bocanegra were surprised to see that Martino brought a notebook. In that notebook were pages of notes on the other MLS teams, including their personnel, formations and tactics. Eales and Bocanegra knew that this wasn’t Martino trying to use Atlanta United to gain for a better deal with another club. Martino was seriously interested. He said someone who works for him in Argentina helped put the notes together. He also familiarized himself with the arcane and unique rules of player acquistion used by MLS.
Plates of steak, pork and other artery-clogging meats came and went. The trio discussed tactics, using salt shakers and napkins to discuss Martino’s pressing style and how he can make it work with varieties of formations.
“I could tell at that moment that this was going to be a great fit, not just from a cultural sense but from a football philosophy,” Eales said.
The only interruptions occured when fans of Martino would come up and ask him to sign everything from napkins to plates, which Eales said he’s never seen before.
They discussed how Martino took the Paraguay national team and then Newell’s Old Boys, a club team in Argentina, to new successes before he was hired by Barcelona for one season and then Argentina for two years. That ability as a leader and manager is what most interested Bocanegra. Though Atlanta United’s ambition is to be a world-class club, Bocanegra and Eales readily admit that they won’t have the same quality of players as what Martino recently managed. Success with teams like Paraguay and Newell’s was a better analogy to Atlanta United, which will begin play in 2017.
“While many speak of Argentina and Barcelona, it was interesting for us to have a guy who could get on the field and coach guys up, who are not afraid to get his feet dirty and get out there and coach,” Bocanegra said.
They talked about the seven players that Atlanta United has already signed, a group that is headlined by Argentinian Hector Villalba, a player Martino knows well and said has the skill set to succeed in his system.
Six hours later, as people were coming in for dinner, the meeting was still going. Eales said it reminded him of his first meeting with Bocanegra. What was going to be a courtesy turned into a meeting so long that Eales almost missed his flight.
Martino visited Atlanta several times after the interview in Argentina, including twice this month. He toured Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where Atlanta United will play. He toured the headquarters that are being constructed in Marietta. He took in two training sessions for the team’s academy players, which is very important to Martino, Bocanegra and Eales because they said that’s the pipeline from which first-teamers will flow. Martino used youth to take Newell’s from relegation to a championship when he managed there.
Though Eales said they were in constant communication with Martino, no contract was signed. Other candidates, including Seattle’s Sigi Schmid, were tied in reports to Atlanta United. Club America, a powerhouse club in Mexico, began looking for a new manager. Eales learned that until contracts are signed nothing can be considered complete, so they waited.
Finally, within the past few days, the deal was complete.
“It was a unique proposal that I couldn’t pass up,” Martino said.
Atlanta United had its first manager, a hire that one journalist said was on almost on par in importance with the league’s signing of David Beckham.
“It says a lot for the growth of MLS to sit here as an expansion team and announce a coach who has coached the Argentinian national teamC and F Barcelona,” Eales said.
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