Video vault and Leeds litter picking - inside the mind of Bielsa

Bielsa, who has said his nickname of 'El Loco' actually predates his time at Velez Sarsfield, very briefly became manager of Spanish side Espanyol but left them when he was offered his first international post in 1998 - as Argentina boss.

Highs and lows with Argentina

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Bielsa's first international job was as manager of Argentina

It took a while for Argentina fans to warm to Bielsa, particularly as he was never afraid to make decisions that went against popular opinion.

Managing one of the best teams in world football meant Bielsa had a wealth of talent available to him, with one of those being the legendary Gabriel Batistuta.

Batistuta was scoring goals for fun in Italy's top flight, but Bielsa's system had only one place for a striker and that was taken up by Hernan Crespo, meaning Batistuta mostly had to be satisfied with appearances off the bench.

The players were swiftly on board with his methods.

"He's the type of coach who makes you win matches," Juan Pablo Sorin said at the time.

"You get to notice which coaches are winners and which aren't. He's managed to get to the stage where if two or three players are missing, the team doesn't change."

Argentina breezed through qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, losing just one of their 18 games, and that form had them installed as among the favourites to win the tournament.

What transpired, though, was the lowest point of Bielsa's career as Argentina failed to make it out of the group stage.

Their surprise exit was attributed to a mixture of issues - injuries to key players and reliable stars being out of form among them - but some strange decisions by Bielsa will not have helped.

Crespo had been key during qualifying with his goals, but at the finals Bielsa opted for the 33-year-old Batistuta as his lone striker, while goalkeeper German Burgos was a regular starter in qualifying but was overlooked for the tournament itself.

Bielsa stayed on despite that failure, and did lead Argentina to the Copa America final a year later and to Olympic gold in 2004 but he resigned at the end of that year, saying he no longer had the energy to manage them. He reputedly then moved into a monastery for three months to recharge, taking only books and living without a phone or access to the internet.

Revolutionising Chile and success at club level

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Bielsa managed Chile at the World Cup

Bielsa's time away from football appeared to do the trick as he would return to management seemingly refreshed and rejuvenated.

In 2007 he was appointed Chile boss, with the national team's hierarchy allowing Bielsa to do whatever was required to revolutionise the team.

He moved into a bedroom at Chile's training site and during his four years in charge he oversaw it being transformed from a tired and outdated place to a modern complex.

Bielsa again put faith in talented youth players, with the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Gary Medel and Mauricio Isla swiftly promoted from the Chile Under-20 side, becoming key players as the national team qualified for the 2010 World Cup.

"Before I was erratic, running around like crazy all over the pitch," Vidal told El Mercurio in 2010.

"He made me realise the importance of the mental side of my game and helped me grow as a person."

Bielsa had led Chile back to a World Cup following two successive absences from the tournament, and in South Africa they progressed to the last 16 where they were beaten by Brazil.

A change in the presidency of the Chilean Football Association was followed by Bielsa resigning in 2011, but within months he accepted the role of head coach at Athletic Club, Bilbao's LaLiga side.

"I first met Bielsa at Athletic Club and he had just been telling somebody off," remembers Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague.

"His arrival there shook people up. He was demanding something that is now given as a minimum, but at the time the fact they had to run constantly, they had to repeat exercises a million times - all of that was very new there but you saw the consequences of that."

He would lead Athletic Bilbao to the 2012 Europa League final but they were beaten to the trophy by Atletico Madrid.

Leading Leeds back to the Premier League

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Marcelo Bielsa achieved legendary status at Leeds

Fleeting spells at Lazio and Lille would follow before Bielsa was appointed Leeds United boss in 2018.

He would go on to once again transform players as he famously guided the West Yorkshire club to promotion back to the Premier League in 2019-20.

Another key aspect of Bielsa's coaching philosophy is being humble.

He has always been keen to make sure the players he coached knew they had privileged jobs. He would look for ways to remind them that not everyone shared the same luxuries in life.

"Much was made of a story about [Leeds] players being made to collect litter near the ground," says Balague, who spent time observing Bielsa's coaching methods at Leeds.

"It was done so they could realise that the world was not made up of people living in elitist and privileged bubbles, but rather 'normal' human beings who had to work very hard.

"It's all about setting high standards that will stay with the club long after he has gone."

Will Bielsa bring Uruguay success at the World Cup?

Uruguay are now the third country Bielsa has guided to a World Cup, and in 2023 he oversaw wins against South American giants Brazil and Argentina.

More recently they drew with Thomas Tuchel's England in a friendly at Wembley, but it has not all been plain sailing for Uruguay under Bielsa.

In September 2024, he was criticised by the country's legendary striker Luis Suarez, who said Bielsa had "divided the whole group".

At the time, Suarez urged Uruguay fans "not to take it out on the players when things go wrong" because "the players will reach a limit and they will explode" under Bielsa's working conditions.

They were also beaten 5-1 by the USA in November last year, a result that left Bielsa feeling "ashamed" and seemingly considering his position in charge of the national team.

At 70, this World Cup could well represent Bielsa's final chance to cement his legacy on the international stage, and he has already hinted that he will step down once Uruguay's campaign comes to an end. A quiet exit from the big stage, whenever it might come, seems unlikely.