In Tata Martino, Atlanta United finds leader to implement franchise's on-field vision
ATLANTA — Darren Eales and Carlos Bocanegra’s managerial search required a 14-hour flight south to the epicenter of Argentinian soccer, the birthplace of Lionel Messi and the former stomping grounds of Diego Maradona. In Rosario, the country’s third-largest city, the Atlanta United front-office brass found another Argentinian staple: Gerardo “Tata” Martino.
Eales, a former Tottenham executive and Atlanta United’s team president, harbored traces of cynicism when he first answered Martino’s phone call a few days prior. Coaches of Martino's stock — with a resume touting stints with FC Barcelona, the world’s premier club this millennium, and the national teams of Paraguay and his native Argentina — rarely invest in startups. One Rosario meal later, his skepticism was put to rest.
Martino arrived with a thick notebook documenting every MLS roster and team shape, and soon enough the trio began discussing tactical adjustments, moving salt shakers and napkins around the table.
“He had a dossier about the size of one of those old telephone directories you used to get,” Eales said of Martino’s preparation at the July meeting.
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsSouth/status/835284989864370176
In September, following more reunions in Atlanta, the club inked Martino to a multiyear contract, a statement hire for a fledgling franchise and Major League Soccer at large. Bocanegra refers to Martino as a “designated coach” — a nod to the league’s designated player rule designed to attract top international talent within a salary cap structure. Tata wields star power.
For Martino, a fresh start following abbreviated runs with Barcelona and Argentina was welcome.
“There have been some very intense jobs that were very public. This is something completely different, with a new franchise. This is something very distinct,” Martino said in early February. “Before, the budget was something that I didn’t have to worry about. But here, I have to know the budgets, I have to talk a lot to the players we want to sign.
“There are a lot of situations that keep presenting themselves that are totally unrecognizable for me.”
In the hierarchy of sales pitches to prospective players, the 54-year-old coach ranks alongside the club’s brand-new venue in downtown Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and a state-of-the-art, $60 million training complex in Marietta. Throw in the youth academy investment — an area of particular interest for Martino due to the track record of player development at Newell’s Old Boys, the historic club in Rosario where he made his mark as player and coach — and the MLS offered not only a pioneering challenge for Tata, but also the opportunity to find success.
Tracing back to that initial lunch in Rosario, tactical style was top of mind for Eales and Bocanegra. Those napkins and salt shakers played their part.
Martino’s “fast and fluid” approach matched the front office’s vision.
“People talk a lot about Barcelona. They talk a lot about Argentina. What interested me the most was when he was coaching Newell’s (Old Boys) and Paraguay,” Bocanegra said at Martino’s introductory news conference. “He took a Paraguayan national team that was outside the rankings of FIFA, you know, in the upper echelon, and brought them back within the top-20.
"And with the team that he took over at Newell’s in Argentina — they were a team struggling, battling a relegation, and he brought them back up … and eventually got them to the semifinals of the (2013) Copa Libertadores.”
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsSouth/status/835300795687960576
Martino's career achievements resonate with his new roster during the club’s inaugural training camp — particularly players with significant international experience.
"You really have no words that can explain the caliber of players (he’s coached)," said Greg Garza, a defender claiming nine caps with the U.S. national team who has spent his entire professional career abroad. "You really look at these guys and these guys have been your idols since you were a little kid. And he’s had the opportunity to train them and show them how to play each and every day on the field. You need to take that into mind and really pick his brain as much as possible."
Added goalkeeper Alec Kann, an MLS regular with the Chicago Fire and Sporting Kansas City before joining Atlanta United through the expansion draft: “He seems like the kind of coach that really gets the best out of his players. ... He wants us to interact with him and it’s a two-way street. It’s always a two-way street with him.”
Martino's style delivered positive early results in the preseason.
With young international products spearheading the effort up front, including Argentinian talents Yamil Asad and Hector "Tito" Villalba and Venezuela native Josef Martinez, Atlanta United scored 11 goals in four preseason games, including 4-2 win over defending MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders in the Carolina Challenge Cup. Kann described the MLS as a league centered around "clashing styles" — from free-flowing styles to more direct tactics — and, while stumbling blocks likely await, Eales & Co. seem genuinely confident good things are in store for the inaugural season under Martino.
In Rosario, Martino picked up the phone and actively sought a new path, one that led him away from any lingering shadows of his abbreviated stint with Argentina's national team or even FC Barcelona, where his native city's most renowned celebrity, Messi, punches the clock. In Atlanta, Tata enters the fold not to place finishing touches on a highly scrutinized project. He'll start with the foundation. Then work his way up.
