By Rex Gowar
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 20 - Marcelo Bielsa has acquired
such a reputation as a coach that his hometown club Newell's Old
Boys in Rosario plan to rename their stadium after him.
Bielsa, who has lead Chile to the World Cup finals for the
first time in 12 years, is feted across the Andean border by
politicians, business leaders and newspaper columnists.
The Newell's Old Boys board will put a motion to its members
and if the vote is carried the renaming will take place on the
club's 106th anniversary on Nov. 3, local media said on Tuesday.
"This is a gesture towards a person who did a lot for the
club and today carries its name with pride around the world,"
Newell's Old Boys secretary Pablo Morosano was quoted as saying.
"This is why we're convinced there will be no opposition to
our poll and the Colossus of the Park will be called Marcelo
Bielsa," he added referring to the ground, situated in Rosario's
Parque Independencia, by its popular though unofficial name.
Bielsa impressed the club when, in a recent news conference
discussing Chile and Argentina and his links to both national
teams, he said: "It's impossible for me to love another shirt
more than that of Newell's".
ARGENTINA FLOP
Supporters back home regret the 54-year-old is no longer in
charge of Argentina even though in 2002, as World Cup favourites
in Asia, they failed to get past the group stage after losing
1-0 to England and being held 1-1 by Sweden.
Bielsa stayed on and steered Argentina to the Copa America
final and their first Olympic soccer gold medal in Athens but
quit in September 2004, citing exhaustion, in the middle of the
qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Three years later Bielsa, who won Argentine league titles
with Newell's in 1991 and 1992 and Velez Sarsfield in 1998, took
over Chile and has worked wonders with an underachieving team.
All this might never have happened if Bielsa's middle class
parents had succeeded in their efforts to steer their youngest
son away from football.
In a family of eminent lawyers, brother Rafael is a former
Argentine foreign minister and sister Maria Eugenia an ex-Santa
Fe provincial vice-governor.
If the renaming of Newell's 39,000 capacity ground goes
ahead, one of the stands will be called Gerardo Martino after
the club's former midfielder who played under Bielsa.
Coach Martino has just secured Paraguay's place at next
year's World Cup in South Africa alongside fellow South American
qualifiers Argentina, Brazil and Bielsa's Chile.
(Editing by Ken Ferris; to query or comment on this story
email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)