Diego Simeone: Atlético Madrid's Fearless Leader Who Held a Knife Between His Teeth

Diego Simeone is one of the greatest midfielders in La Liga history | Tal Gilad/Minute Media

Diego Simeone's reputation precedes him.

You only have to take one look into his wild eyes to understand why he is one of the most feared characters in football, but if you have only become familiar with El Cholo through his antics on the Atletico Madrid touchline, then you are missing the best part of the story.

To get the entire picture, you have to go all the way back to the 1958 World Cup, when La Nuestra - the prevailing Argentine footballing philosophy that had previously won them 11 South American Championships - went out the window.

A 6-1 defeat to Czechoslovakia left the nation embarrassed, and football purism was abandoned for a more pragmatic approach to the game.

One of the main instigators of this changing of the tides was Victorio Spinetto, the famous Velez Sarsfield manager, who was charged with bringing a results-focused approach to the Argentine national team. He did so successfully; the Argentina teams who would later win World Cups under Cesar Luis Menotti and Carlos Bilardo owed much to his teachings, even if his involvement with the national team was, for the most part, indirect.

It wasn't on the international stage, but back at Spinetto's beloved Vélez, where he would first encounter a young Diego Simeone. Spinetto, involved heavily with the Velez youth setup towards the end of his career, taught the promising teenager how to channel the chip on his shoulder. He taught him that the end, not the means, was all that mattered, and made it clear that no less than 100% effort, in any facet of life, would get him there.

It was here in Buenos Aires that football's ultimate pantomime villain was born.

Within three years of taking Spinetto's teachings into the Velez senior team, Simeone had a reputation as a midfielder who was not to be messed with, and via a successful two-year stint at Pisa in Italy, he landed at Sevilla in 1992. By then, he was a full Argentina international - having won the 1991 Copa America - and well on his way to becoming one of his country's greatest exports since Diego Maradona.

No-one is really sure where his nickname, El Cholo, came from. Some say it refers to Velez midfielder Carlos Simeone, remembered for his fearlessness and tenacity, but in any case the tag, and its gangster connotations, stuck with Diego as he made an indelible mark on Spanish football. But while his tough-tackling, all-action style was his headline act, it was all undercut with a precision and pristine technical ability for which he has never received enough credit.

Few could win a 50/50 with El Cholo, but fewer still could match his passing range, and that made him a perfect fit for the evolving landscape of Spanish football.

The undoubted peak of his playing career came in the 1995/96 season, a legendary one for Atletico Madrid, that kicked the Simeone mythos into overdrive. Even now, having guided the club to seven major trophies as manager, the famous 1996 double success is viewed as his finest hour.

He had been brought to the club under Colombian manager Francisco Maturana, but it was Serbian coach Radomir Antic who captured lightning in a bottle. With Simeone deployed in a variety of positions all over midfield, an ugly, unbecoming Atleti team would overthrow Barcelona's Cruyffist dominance, and Simeone - by now one of the leaders of the dressing room - won a league title for the first time in his career.

Though hailing from Argentina, Simeone modelled his game on two players from abroad. The graceful Brazilian Falcao informed his technical sensibilities, while the tactically astute fearlessness he was imbued with can be traced to Germany's Lothar Matthaus. The perfect blend of these conflicting talents, punctuated with a legendary stamina and desire to win whatever the cost, created a player few could touch.

He might be better known as Simeone the manager, whose unsavoury methods regularly rattle the cages of those with differing philosophical views on football. Beneath it all, however, was an unapologetic La Liga career that stands up by itself.

It's not abundantly clear what El Cholo meant when he said he played football 'with a knife between his teeth'. Yet the images it conjures up befit a player who sweated blood for Atletico Madrid.