Giuliano breaks prejudices

At the beginning of the season he seemed one of the players with the least chance of playing and standing out at Atlético de Madrid. He had almost all of his companions ahead of him: some for having cost a lot of money; others for having a name already made in football and a career in the team. As if that were not enough, he had to face the prejudices of those who believed that they had given him his presence in the squad because he was the coach’s son. However, just three months later, Giuliano Simeone has become the name of the moment in the red and white team, and has become one of the fans’ favorites. How has he achieved it?

In five of the last seven games played by the colchoneros, Giuliano has been key to the result being positive. Against Leganés and with the score 1-1, he fought to recover a ball that was going wide and give an assist to Griezmann; in Vic, in a Copa del Rey match and with his team unable to overcome a tie against a regional team, he caused a penalty that put the victory on track with ten minutes left to go to extra time; against Las Palmas he scored the first goal; In Paris, he starred in the play that ended in Nahuel’s goal; and in Mallorca he ran for a long pass to win a dispute that seemed lost and give the winning goal to Julián. A performance that has even earned him a call-up to the senior Argentine national team in two of the last three call-ups, either from the beginning or after an injury in the squad, something that seemed unimaginable when the football season started last August.

In any work environment, having a son work in the same company where his father is the boss causes misgivings. The supposed advantages that this generates for that person are usually put first before their professional value to be there. A reality that grows in a world as public as that of football, with thousands of eyes that examine his performance every day, many of them eager to have arguments to criticize him. But Giuliano has managed to turn the situation around by maximizing his qualities: he has shown dedication, great physical condition, he disputes each ball as if his life depended on it, he plays with intensity, he has character and, above all, he shows an ambition to earn a place that has often been lacking in some of his colleagues. To all this we must add his versatility: he can play as a forward, interior or winger.

Giuliano not only had to overcome those suspicions; A rumor even spread that some of his teammates were uncomfortable with his presence in the locker room. Furthermore, if an assessment is made of the qualities of the players on the athletic team, there are many who, on paper, seem to be better gifted than him. But his case also serves as an example that in life it is not enough to have aptitudes alone, but that with a good attitude you can also stand out and put yourself on the same level or even surpass professionals with more talent to develop an activity. In any case, in a team sport it is always necessary to have players of both characteristics. It is as unlikely to achieve success without talent as it is to achieve success without effort. And Giuliano is proving to more than meet one of those profiles, without that meaning that he does not also have his technical capabilities that, in any case, he can always polish and improve. Let’s remember that we are talking about a 21-year-old boy.

It may be that if Diego Pablo Simeone had not been Atleti’s coach, Giuliano would not have reached the team’s youth ranks. We will never know. What we do know is that since then he has followed the same path as any other youth player, and that he has had to earn every step he has taken. At the age of 17 he joined the Colchonero youth team from the Argentine River Plate. After a year and a half, he debuted with Atleti “B” in January 2021, scoring four goals until the end of the campaign. In the 21-22 season, already a permanent member of the Colchonero first reserve team, he scored 25 goals in 36 games, and was key in the promotion to the senior category. Then it was decided that he would go out on loan and cut his teeth in the Second Division. Among the numerous offers he had, he opted for Real Zaragoza, with whom he played the 22-23 campaign. Thanks to his nine goals he became the team’s top scorer.

The skilled team wanted him to continue, but Atleti wanted to see him in a First Team and that is why it was decided that he would go on loan to Alavés, but not before renewing him until 2028. A hard setback appeared along the marked path. A tackle by a Burgos player in a pre-season friendly match caused him to fracture his tibia and fibula, leaving him off the field for five months. After recovering, he managed to play 16 games, and scored one goal. The Vitorian team wanted to have him again in the current campaign, but after his good performance in the Argentine Olympic team this past summer at the Paris Games, Cholo and the sports managers of the athletic entity decided that he should have a place in the team.

Giuliano also contributes another value, which although it is not essential to be successful in a team, it is important. We are talking about identification with colors, something always highly valued by fans. We remember his photo of him, when he was barely two years old, in his father’s arms, wearing an Atleti shirt on the day Cholo said goodbye as a player in his second stage at the club, at the end of 2004. Or when ten years later , while working as a ball boy at the Calderón, ran to hug his father after a goal in a Cup derby. And also celebrating effusively, as an older man, some triumph seen on television with his brother or with friends. He has loved Atleti since he was little and now he is living what he wanted so many times. This is how he recognized it after the game against Las Palmas: “It is a dream every day I wake up to train at Atleti, play at Atleti, be in this stadium. For me it is something wonderful.”

There will be those who think that Simeone Sr. is not going to judge his son in the same way as the rest of the players. It should be enough to read his statements to know that this is not going to happen: “I see Giuliano all the time as a football player. And from the first moment I decided for him to stay with us, it was the same decision I had with any other player who has stayed on the squad, for a situation where he can help us. The only thing I think about is the team. I don’t think about anyone or anything, even if it’s my son, it doesn’t relate to me in a different situation than as a footballer” (…). “As an Atlético player, Giuliano has a demand and a responsibility. It doesn’t have a name. He is just another footballer. I don’t want or watch movies in that sense. At Atlético, those who run play and those who don’t play less.”

They were both aware that it would not be easy, that there would be comments, that at the first opportunity they would use the son to attack the father. And they both know that the field gives and takes away reasons. Giuliano seems like he is going to have the unpleasant task of having to prove more than the others to avoid criticism of his father. And he will play good games, average and bad, like everyone else. Only time will tell if Giuliano earns a long career with the team or not. But it would be just as unfair if he played without deserving it, which is not going to happen, as it would be to judge him and demand a different way from him because of who he is. He has been hearing at home all his life that ‘work pays’. And so it should be. For everyone.

At the beginning of the season he seemed one of the players with the least chance of playing and standing out at Atlético de Madrid. He had almost all of his companions ahead of him: some for having cost a lot of money; others for having a name already made in football and a career in the team. As if that were not enough, I had to…