He is the cartoon villain of the piece, football’s black-clad master of the dark arts, the man who got David Beckham sent off in Saint-Etienne all those years ago.
Beyond the caricature, though, Diego Simeone – the man whose Atletico Madrid side stand between Arsenal and the Champions League final on Tuesday – is a man who leaves a lasting mark on the players he works with.
Just ask former Barnsley player Hugo Colace. Now a coach himself, the 42-year-old Argentine spent only six months with Simeone during his time leading Estudiantes de La Plata two decades ago. Yet, it was enough to effect a “360-degree change” in Colace.
“He changed my mentality, the way I lived,” Colace tells The i Paper.
“He changed the way I played. He gave me discipline. I’d been a more tactical, positional midfield player; he made me more aggressive, more intense, more box to box.
“The main point is the intensity, day after day, because it’s not only in the game but in the week – you train hard every single day.”
Today, at 56, Simeone is no different, with one source at Atletico noting that he still “leaves nothing behind” on the training ground each day – an unrelenting approach that his players have no option but to follow.
It was at Estudiantes in 2006 that Simeone first showcased his coaching gifts by leading the club to their first league title in 23 years after defeating Boca Juniors 2-1 in the final.
Estudiantes’ best years had come in the late 1960s when they played a notorious two-legged Intercontinental Cup final against Manchester United in 1968, featuring red cards for Nobby Stiles and George Best.
In their midfield was Carlos Bilardo, later coach of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup-winning team, and a player described as “an expert in immobilising his opponent”.
The same might be said of Atletico, given the outstanding defensive organisation and discipline that have helped take them to the cusp of Simeone’s third Champions League final with the Rojiblancos.
Yet, as Colace attests, Simeone has an appreciation of good football too.
Colace had come through the ranks of Argentinos Juniors, Diego Maradona’s first club, as a teenager.
As a result, Simeone would tell him: “Come on, Hugo, Maradona and [Fernando] Redondo were born there, if you come from that club, you can’t play a bad pass.”
Twenty years on, Simeone shows similar admiration for Antoine Griezmann, Atleti’s floating French attacker who was their biggest threat in the first leg.
Simeone called him “a genius” when they sat on the dais together at a recent press conference following the announcement of Griezmann’s summer departure for MLS side Orlando City.
That said, for all the mutual respect – and the pair have holidayed together with their families – Griezmann has said their conversations seldom stray beyond football.
As for Colace, the Simeone experience set him up to shine in the Championship with Barnsley.
He arrived in south Yorkshire fresh from a loan spell at Brazilian club Flamengo, swapping the Maracana for Oakwell, where he hit the ground running.
“Thanks to Simeone’s intensity I was able to do well at Barnsley,” says Colace, who collected the club’s player of the year award in 2009-10 when, under manager Mark Robins, he scored seven league goals from midfield.
Colace was back at Oakwell on Saturday to watch their 3-1 loss to Stockport County in Conor Hourihane’s last match as manager.
The connection he forged with the club as a player means that “it’s the place in the world that I dream of returning to as coach”.
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Once captain of an Argentina Under-20 team including Javier Mascherano, Carlos Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta, Colace played in 10 countries, ending his career in Wales with Bangor City, where he subsequently faced a managerial baptism of fire.
Bangor were in the Welsh second tier, Cymru North, but after Italian owner Domenico Serafino disappeared, the club were suspended from the division.
In 2022, with players unpaid for months, they withdrew from the league altogether.
“Overnight he vanished and left the club with nothing,” Colace says.
“My assistant Riccardo [Pellegrini] and I had to do everything – we had to buy food for the players, clean the club buildings, try to find sponsors.”
While his coaching badges carry the stamp of the English FA, Simeone’s influence remains strong – right down to his black attire on the touchline during his recent spell coaching Atletico Tucuman in his home country.
Now, however, this Simeone disciple is back in the UK, and will be at the Emirates for Tuesday’s semi-final second leg.
While El Cholo aims for a Champions League final in Budapest, though, Colace is dreaming of Barnsley.