Diego Simeone is the face of Atlético Madrid and has been since taking over as head coach
in December of 2011. But behind him is a man whose presence is
as vital as it is understated. That man is Germán Adrián Ramón Burgos, often known
by his nickname of Mono Burgos, with ‘Mono’ meaning ‘Monkey’ in Spanish.
He is Simeone’s number two and much more important than you might think.
His story has everything. They say goalkeepers are eccentric and in Burgos’s case that’s
certainly true. Born in Mar de Plata in the province of Buenos Aires on April 16th 1969,
Burgos came through at Ferro Carril Oeste and also played for River Plate before moving
to Spain. He was already 30 years of age when he first arrived in LaLiga at Real Mallorca
in 1999, but he never looked back. His first significant appearance in the headlines
of Spanish newspapers was for negative reasons, as he was suspended for 11 matches for punching
Espanyol player Manolo Serrano during a match. Little by little, though, he became known
in Spain for more amicable reasons, such as his great goalkeeping performances, his vibrant
personality and his famous red baseball cap .
His transfer to Atlético Madrid in 2001 pushed him further into the spotlight, even though
Atlético were in the second division at the time. He helped them win promotion back to
LaLiga and celebrated it by starring in one of the most iconic adverts in the history
of Spanish television . The scene is a deserted Gran Vía in the centre of Madrid, with Burgos
emerging from a manhole. “We’re already back” read the text.
Burgos didn’t play much for Atlético once they were back in the first division due to
renal cancer, but he swatted that away just as he would a striker’s shot. He later revealed:
“When the doctors told me I had cancer and needed an operation, I asked them to perform
it on the Monday because I had a game on the Sunday.”
Of course, the doctors insisted otherwise, but Burgos worked hard to be back for the
final game of that 2002/03 season. He’d retire one year later, but 2003/04 was important
because that was when he really got to know Diego Simeone, who returned to the capital
city club in the summer of 2003. They’d already played together for the Argentina
national team, but now they were spending every day together and Simeone fell in love
with the goalkeeper’s way of seeing football. When Burgos retired, his main focus was unorthodox.
It was to focus on his rock band. As a huge Rolling Stones fan, Burgos had always loved
rock music and had put together his own band in which he sang lead vocals and played the
guitar. The name of that group was The GARB - G, A, R and B being his initials.
When Simeone himself retired and moved into coaching in 2006, he knew he wanted Burgos
as part of his staff. His former teammate politely declined at first, but eventually
moved away from the world of rock and back towards football, holding roles with lower
league Spanish sides Alcorcón and Carabanchel. Then, in January of 2011 when Simeone moved
to Catania in Italy, Burgos finally decided to team up with his compatriot.
That was when the magic started. They kept the Sicilian team in Serie A in the six months
they were there . They then left and went to Racing Club in Argentina for six months,
where they had modest success. Then came the phone call from Atlético in December of 2011.
On December 23rd of that month, Simeone was unveiled as the new coach of the Spanish club
and we know how that story goes, with the Argentine winning seven titles in eight years
. What not everyone knows, however, is the importance
of Burgos’ role. He is the number two, but he does a lot more than most assistant coaches.
There is a perception of Burgos as being an aggressive and thuggish character, but that
is largely exaggerated. While it’s true that he did have a few incidents during his
playing career and while it’s true that he once shouted at Jose Mourinho “I’m
not Tito Vilanova, I’ll rip your head off” – a reference to the Portuguese’s infamous
eye gouge - Burgos is more often than not the calming presence which offsets Simeone’s
ferocity. He's kind and funny too. One illustration
of his kindness comes from his playing days, when the Argentine used to arrive at the Atlético
training complex a couple of hours before he was supposed to be there, so that he could
share breakfast with the builders who were working on the grounds. As for his humour,
there are many examples of that. Asked in one interview what he’d have wanted to be
if he’d never been a footballer, “a footballer’s wife” was his response. His sharp tongue
even got him thrown out of the Vatican on one occasion when Atletico visited during
a trip to take on Lazio in Rome, but he wasn’t too bothered as that meant he could enjoy
a cigarette outside. When it’s time to work, though, Burgos is
as professional as they come. He is a tactical mind and plays an important role in the development
of set piece strategies and in video analysis before games. Burgos has multiple TV screens
in his office, on which he claims he can analyse several football matches at the same time.
The fact that he is a keen disciple of video analysis makes sense given that he spent four
years at Ferro Carril Oeste playing for Carlos Timoteo Griguol, an Argentine coach and video
analysis pioneer. In April of 2014 in a match against Getafe,
Burgos even became a bit of a pioneer himself as he became the first coach to use Google
Glass during a match by combining it with the LaLiga-provided Mediacoach app to display
up-to-the-minute statistics on the 22 players on the pitch .
The combination of Burgos’ analytical brain and Simeone’s motivational skills is a winning
one and Burgos compares this Argentine coaching double act to Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
Fortunately, Simeone understands and appreciates the importance of Burgos and all his coaching
staff. When Atlético won LaLiga in 2013/14 at the Camp Nou, he invited all members of
his coaching staff to join him at his post-match press conference and said: “I want to share
this moment with my guys. They don’t appear on TV every day, but they work every bit as
hard as those who are on TV, or even a little more. They have made me a better coach.”
It's true, they did and continue to do so. Burgos especially. He is an understated factor
in the success of Atlético in the past decade, so much so that there is increasing speculation
that Burgos could one day go it alone.