{"id":740959,"date":"2026-06-16T17:46:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740959\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:46:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:46:05","slug":"im-not-a-model-uruguays-bielsa-defends-bizarre-world-cup-portrait-marcelo-bielsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740959\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m not a model\u2019 Uruguay\u2019s Bielsa defends bizarre World Cup portrait | Marcelo Bielsa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Uruguay head coach, Marcelo Bielsa, has lived up to his maverick reputation by refusing to cooperate during a photoshoot for Fifa. Bielsa stared down at the floor, hands in pockets, statuesque, during the obligatory media duty last Wednesday and the 70-year-old hit back when asked about the incident after Uruguay\u2019s 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a model,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have to give any explanation, the picture was taken the way it was taken. Should I also explain why I don\u2019t look to the people who are speaking to me at this moment?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bielsa\u2019s continued his rant even when reporters moved on from the topic: \u201cThere is a limit in terms of what we need to explain. If I\u2019m wearing glasses, why am I wearing glasses? You look somebody in the eye, why do you do that? There is nothing wrong about wearing glasses or looking into somebody\u2019s eyes or looking down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Getty photographers, Michael Regan and Molly Darlington, shot portraits of the Uruguay<\/a> team in Canc\u00fan, Mexico, on 10 June. They had no trouble getting emotive photos of the players, but it is Bielsa\u2019s awkward image that has become one of the first viral pictures of the tournament.<\/p>\n

The Argentinian is well known for being eccentric: during his time as the Leeds United manager he would sit on a plastic bucket to relieve chronic back pain. He also paid the \u00a3200,000 fine<\/a> the club received after spying on Derby in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Uruguay head coach, Marcelo Bielsa, has lived up to his maverick reputation by refusing to cooperate during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-740959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}