Mendilibar, the coach capable of seducing the most dangerous president

Barcelona"With the president? We get along well, maybe because we don't understand each other's languages," jokes José Luis Mendilibar (Zaldibar, Basque Country, 1961), the coach capable of performing miracles at Olympiacos, Barça's next European rival. The first miracle was the first European title ever won by a Greek team, the 2024 Conference League against Fiorentina. The second miracle is staying in charge, as Evangelos Marinakis, the owner and president of the Piraeus club, is famous for dismissing coaches as easily as others gobble up olives while having a glass of vermouth. No joke, with Marinakis. The son of a shipping magnate who was already a director at Olympiacos, Evangelos controls the club and the Piraeus City Council through an independent party he created himself. He's a businessman under investigation for creating mafia networks inside and outside the club, attacking rival executives, scaring referees, making deals with foreign mafias, and being involved in the death of a police officer attacked by club radicals who were supposed to collect money from the president.

Marinakis is a controversial and frightening man, quite overweight and with a sour face. Mendilibar is a quiet but brave guy, a true Basque, with whom talking is always a pleasure. "Life is good in Greece. I like the culture, except for the way they drive. It was a challenge because Olympiacos is the biggest club and you always have to win, you can never fail. The president made that clear to us the first day we arrived," he reasons. Mendi, as he is known by all, managed to get the team working by asking the players to "do things easily" but always with ambition. "Here they ask you to attack. I like to attack. People say I perform miracles, but I feel like I do things the same way I always do; I guess I've been lucky. And if they criticize me, I have a hard time understanding it," he jokes, as he doesn't speak English. He only speaks Spanish and Basque.

Mendilibar is an old-school coach who started on clay and sand pitches. "It's not a cliché; they were real clay pitches, those of Durango and Sestao in the 1980s," he explains. He would come through Athletic's youth system, without ever making his first-team debut. He never played in the First Division, punishing his knees on Second and Third Division pitches like those of Logroñés or Lemona. As a coach, he started at very modest teams like Arratia or Aurrera de Vitoria. His excellent work at teams like Lanzarote and Eibar would allow him to fulfill his dream of coaching the club he loved as a child, Athletic, but it was a disaster: after nine matches, with the team in the relegation zone, he was sacked.He didn't falter and would make a name for himself in Valladolid, where Pep Guardiola would praise his daring style. "Yes, he says we played well, but they screwed us over eight goals," Mendilibar would say humorously, thinking about how to combine praise with good results. Having become the miracle worker at Eibar, the Basque coach has known success at 60 years old, in Seville and Olympiacos.

And that was despite the fact that in Seville he clashed with the sporting management because he didn't use either big data, no computers, no apps. Although he had won the Europa League by defeating Mourinho's Roma in the 2023 final, Sevilla did not want to continue with him despite the fans' love for him. Mendilibar would go to Greece to continue winning, while the big data It showed that Sevilla was a disaster without the Basque coach. Statistics also show that working with Marinakis isn't easy. In 2010, the shipping magnate bought the majority stake in the Piraeus club. In 15 years, he's won a ton of titles (11 out of 15 league titles), but he's also made 26 managerial changes. Only four have lasted long enough: Portuguese Pedro Martins, Madrid's Michel, Ernesto Valverde, and Mendilibar.

Experiences in the Basque Country

Valverde gave Mendilibar advice before the latter agreed to sign for Olympiacos, as the current Athletic Club manager had managed to reach an understanding with the temperamental president. Mendi and Valverde knew each other from their time together playing for Sestao in the mid-1980s, a friendship they have maintained. In fact, a decade ago, when Mendilibar worked at Eibar, the coaches of Basque teams in the First Division would often meet for lunch, an initiative Valverde and Mendi frequently pursued. Instead of competing, they shared experiences and clashed in traditional Basque restaurants hidden in inland villages.

Mendilibar managed to ensure Marinakis didn't suffer at Olympiacos, allowing the businessman to focus on his new toy, Nottingham Forest, which he bought eight years ago. With his money, the British club has gone from playing in the Second Division to qualifying for European competitions for the first time in almost three decades. But the fans are wary of a man who has sacked eight coaches, one per season. The latest fall came last weekend, when Marinakis booed Australian Ange Postecoglou in the dressing room tunnel, after he had been in charge for just four weeks. That same weekend, Olympiacos were winning 2-0 in Larissa, with Mendilibar stating in a press conference: "If we play this badly, Barça will screw us over by eight goals." Marinakis likes Mendi's style, where he says things as they come. Just as he did on modest pitches in the Basque Country in the 1990s.