“My children were raised with a somewhat absent father”: the 10 best sentences from the interview with Manuel Pellegrini

Manuel Pellegrini had an in-depth interview with Sporty . In her He spoke in detail about his coaching career and his gift to Real Betis . He also carried out an analysis of La Roja and his possibility of leading it, in addition to opening up to rewatch family episodes which he rarely spoke about in public.

The main thing now is to maintain daily demand. The most important thing for me is to win the next match with Betis, to be able to qualify for the European Cups. My career has been very long. I am one of the six or seven coaches who have led the most matches in the world and that fills me with pride. Being able to have a career for 25 consecutive years outside my country, working every year, is something that is valued. But as I always say, it’s already the past and we can’t live from the past.

This is not me saying it. I have deep admiration for Fernando Riera and the other Chilean technicians who have had a great career. I don’t think it’s me who can say if I’m the best or not. I don’t live on comparisons or praise. I am personally proud of what I have been able to accomplish during my career.

Not at the moment. I believe that this activity only removes you when you do not have a club or selection interested in your services. Plus, when you also receive offers that motivate you to go further, it always invites you to continue. I always say that there is a chronological age and a biological age, which are the demands that we have on a daily basis. In the biological world I feel young and we will maintain this requirement until the same activity takes me away.

The risk to the family is high. I think it’s already happened, because I already have three adult children. They are all married now. Two live in Chile and one here in Spain. It was very difficult for my wife to have to travel a lot to different regions. I think that the education of my children was done with a somewhat absent father, especially since the age of 12, but on the other hand I think that it is an education based precisely on the achievements, about the demands and about the moments of life in which they I had the chance to share with me.

What I experienced with the U was the start of a career in which having experienced this failure so young helped me a lot. This inspired me to try harder and show the reasons why I wanted to dedicate myself to football. What happened with the U was also a bit of a sin of youthful hubris. I had retired a year before as a player because I knew the club was in very poor financial health and there was no possibility of having a good campaign. It was a setback, but also a very important learning experience.

No, it’s been a long time since I had conversations with Chile. My name still appears, but no, nothing happened. The first thing I hope is that Ricardo Gareca does very well and extends his stay in Chile a lot. And then we will see if my return to Chile coincides sportingly, because personally I have never separated from my country.

For different reasons. I always preferred managing clubs rather than the national team. Not because the clubs are more important than my country, but because it motivates me more to work day by day on the field and not once every three months with the national team and the rest is just administrative work. It can be a great experience and even more so when you can go to a World Cup. But I tell you, it’s never over. To this explanation must be added the conviction that I have that the coach is responsible for carrying out the sporting project carried out with all managerial support in order to improve the whole of football at world level. We should not believe that a certain coach should only lead a national team to a World Cup. The objective must be that the improvement of Chilean football allows the team to qualify for the World Cup.

I had conversations with Alexis last season before going to Inter, we discussed something, but he preferred to go to Inter; Now things have changed. We are finishing the season.

I think we are not at the top of Chilean football. A generation is ending, and that says a lot, and it’s not just a generation, but a body of work that has allowed this generation to reach the level that it has reached. Let’s hope that this does not become a representative affair, but rather a development of football on a global level.

I had the chance to see those leaving for Europe, but I was not able to follow them much either. But I think there are several who can still give a lot like Alexis, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Bravo, who are players who have had an impressive career at world level. I think they still have a lot to do in Chilean football.