At the beginning of the final training session before their biggest game in a decade, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u2019s players lined up by the centre circle at the Metropolitano and waited for their coach to come. Diego Simeone arrived and ran through the middle of them, from Juan Musso and Jan Oblak at one end to Antoine Griezmann and Ademola Lookman at the other. As he passed, head down, they cheered and hit him \u2013 if not quite as hard as they do when it\u2019s a player\u2019s turn. Gauntlet run, applause echoed round the empty stadium. Happy birthday, mister.<\/p>\n
Simeone turned 56 on Tuesday. He has spent almost 20 of those here: first as the captain who won the double, then the coach who lifted Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s next league title, 18 years on<\/a>, and now leads them into his fourth and their seventh European Cup semi-final, nine years since the last. What do you get the man who has it all? \u201cBuah! You can\u2019t imagine how good it is to be in the four best teams in Europe,\u201d he said after the quarter-final<\/a>; \u201cI have no birthday wish,\u201d he said before this semi-final, \u201cjust pure gratitude to be able to be with my three sons on my birthday, with my two daughters, my mum, my wife, my lifelong friends.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the sons was hidden in the crowd somewhere, hitting him. The day that Simeone bade farewell to the Vicente Calder\u00f3n as a player in December 2004, he carried his youngest son, two-year-old Giuliano, in his arms. The days before he came back to Madrid as coach in December 2011, he stopped in a cafe in Mar del Plata and, over a croissant and a glass of milk, asked Giuliano, then eight, what he thought. \u201cYou\u2019re going to coach [Radamel] Falcao?!\u201d the kid replied, excitement giving way to reality. \u201cBut \u2026 if it goes well, you won\u2019t come back.\u201d<\/p>\n It did and he didn\u2019t, but that was all right. Fourteen years later, Giuliano\u2019s dad is still there \u2013 no manager in Spanish history has lasted longer \u2013 and now so is he. Born in Italy in December 2002, Giuliano grew up in Argentina with his elder brothers, Giovanni and Gianluca, but they visited often and their dad visited them too. They would eat \u201ctogether\u201d via an iPad on matchday mornings. Football was their thing, of course, bound by a shared passion<\/a>. Glasses would be moved round the table in formation and they would find bits of paper all over the house, Gio recalled: tactical scribblings their dad did<\/a>.<\/p>\n During celebrations after Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s 2012 Europa League title, Simeone Sr was caught on camera excitedly talking on the phone: \u201cAnd did you see Falcao\u2019s goal?!\u201d On the other end was Giuliano. The night Atl\u00e9tico won the Copa del Rey in 2013<\/a>, it was a school night, too late, but the brothers went through the usual routine at home, scarves draped around the room. When Atl\u00e9tico won the derby in January 2015, a tiny ballboy in a white bib and long hair came racing along the touchline \u2013 something he was going to be very good at \u2013 and leaped into the coach\u2019s arms. That was Giuliano too<\/a>.<\/p>\n Diego Simeone shouting instructions from the Atl\u00e9tico touchline as he has done for more than 14 years. Photograph: Irina R Hipolito\/AFP7\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n As a ballboy he was invariably by the bench and, yes, there were times his dad told him to slow down a bit if they were winning. He would visit training at Cerro del Espino in Majadahonda near the family home and have a kickabout. \u201cIt was crazy seeing the players up close,\u201d he has said. \u201cI always thought: \u2018Imagine being out there; that would be mad.\u2019\u201d After Falcao<\/a>, his idol became Antoine Griezmann<\/a>.<\/p>\n Competition came closer to home. \u201cThey would kick me, throw me to the floor, and if I cried, I couldn\u2019t play with them any more; I learned to be tougher,\u201d Giuliano said of playing with his brothers. Gianluca and Gio were good, becoming professionals like their dad, and they suspected Giuliano would be good too. Just maybe not this good. He was 16 when he left River Plate\u2019s academy and crossed the Atlantic to join Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s youth system, living with his dad, watching him pore over formations every morning. When he turned 18, though, Simeone Sr kicked him out; it was time to be a man. Now, his dad is his manager and his hero is his teammate.<\/p>\n Which might make it sound easy, but it hasn\u2019t been \u2013 in part precisely because it might sound easy. In a recent interview with Jorge Valdano, Giuliano admitted: \u201cAt times, it can feel strange to me, wondering what others might think.\u201d When Valdano joked that the best thing is, when your teammates speak badly of the manager, speak even worse. The reply came back rapidly: \u201cNo doubt!\u201d Giuliano admitted that had affected him when he was younger, telling Cadena Ser<\/a>: \u201cWhen I was 12 people said I was playing because I was my father\u2019s son. I try to isolate myself from [that]. I know I won\u2019t be gifted anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Quite the opposite. Simeone Sr once said that there was no way he would sign his son because of the baggage it would bring: the suspicion, the pressure. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say never, but \u2026\u201d he said. \u201cIt would be very difficult to have a son in the dressing room. Very difficult for him, for the relationship, for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n But he said that about Gio not Giuliano, and Atl\u00e9tico didn\u2019t sign the latter nor really plan for father and son to coincide. He was just another kid from the academy, trying to prove himself.<\/p>\n A scarf featuring Atl\u00e9tico manager Diego Simeone and his son, and Atl\u00e9tico player, Giuliano Simeone, for sale outside the Metropolitano. Photograph: David Ramos\/Uefa\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Having to do more to prove himself, in fact. Loaned out to Zaragoza first and Alav\u00e9s next, Giuliano broke an ankle in 2023. His dad immediately went to his bedside, but the doubts about where his career went next were not limited to the injury, which he overcame with the determination that comes with the name. There was, it appeared, a reluctance in Simeone to open a pathway for his son. Simeone Jr, though, would end up opening it himself, as insistent and relentless as his old man was. Smashing down the door, he made it impossible for anyone to ignore him. Even his dad.<\/p>\n Giuliano used to be a centre-forward but his grandfather \u2013 Simeone\u2019s father \u2013 said the wing would make him, and so it was: tearing up the touchline, veins in his head about to blow. \u201cThat Simeone, man \u2026 bloody hell\u201d, Alav\u00e9s\u2019s then-coach, Luis Garc\u00eda, said. \u201cHe runs for 90 minutes without stopping. He\u2019s a pain. He\u2019s got a very high level. He makes something out of nothing at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI see a player, not a son,\u201d Simeone says. However proud he has felt he has been extremely careful not to talk effusively about his son even when he has done so for other players \u2013 before facing Barcelona he publicly told Griezmann: \u201cI love you\u201d \u2013 or even acknowledge him.<\/p>\n When Gianluca was at Rayo Majadahonda, who play home games at Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s training ground, they would turn up separately, sit separately and leave separately. \u201cGiuliano has a good relationship with his teammates; that\u2019s the thing I\u2019m happiest about in our father-son journey,\u201d Simeone said.<\/p>\n Atl\u00e9tico manager Diego Simeone celebrates his side\u2019s 5-2 victory over Real Madrid in September, with his son Giuliano. Photograph: Manuel Blondeau\/AOP Press\/SIPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n