How stubborn Marcelo Bielsa provoked the bitter demise of Uruguay in World Cup implosion

For five minutes, Luis Suarez sat down opposite Marcelo Bielsa and explained his frustrations with how things were in the Uruguay camp. The Uruguayans were in the USA for Copa America 2024 and a group that had become accustomed to being able to do things a certain way under previous regimes were bristling at seemingly needless restrictions being put into place by Bielsa, their coach who is as famous for his genius as his idiosyncrasies. In truth, the grievances seem pretty minor. "At the Celeste Complex, employees are not allowed to come in and greet us and eat with us," he said. "They have to be careful even at the door they have to enter. It breaks my heart that this is how life is in the Complex today.” On a similar track, in New York, Bielsa had asked the players not to go out and greet fans only for Suarez to stand up and tell him they were going to do it anyway. It kept adding on to an existing tension between the most senior player in the squad and the man charged with leading them to glory. Once Suarez had completed what, in his own recollection, was five uninterrupted minutes of speaking, he paused, awaiting a response from his coach. Uruguay have been eliminated after a disastrous World Cup 2026 (Getty) “Thank you very much,” Bielsa said. And that was that. Within weeks, Uruguay were out after losing the semi-final to Colombia and Suarez had retired from international football, Bielsa’s curt response the final insult, and Suarez went on a media tour to let everybody know how he felt. That began a mediatic war in this tiny, football-obsessed country from which the current iteration of Uruguay never recovered. Before the rupture with Suarez, Uruguay had won 11 and drawn five of their 18 games under Bielsa, including notable wins over Brazil and Argentina. After it, there were just five wins in 17 games, including a 5-1 humbling by the United States and a winless World Cup 2026 campaign, something thought impossible when the two-time champions were drawn in a group with Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. The team lost its temper, their coach did too, and it’s the end of their story together. The Uruguayan FA has even reportedly cancelled a chartered return flight, with players forced to return on commercial flights. Uruguay's Agustin Canobbio is shown a red card by referee Ismail Elfath (Reuters) Bielsa is, in many ways, the complete opposite to his Conmebol contemporary Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti has never been considered a tactical mastermind, but is one of the best ever at managing the vibes, keeping players engaged and striking the right balance of freedom and instruction. Bielsa is an unavoidably awkward man, who can speak in long, rambling screeds or puncture you with short shrift but a tactical mind, praised by Pep Guardiola as a “genius,” who is obsessed with the minutiae and details of coaching. What is notable about the contrasts in the two coaches for this tournament was that Ancelotti called up Neymar Jr. beforehand and told him that as long as he didn’t mind being a substitute that he wanted him in the squad. Ancelotti knew it was better to have Neymar on the inside than the outside, particularly if results wobbled, and managed it deftly. Suarez swallowed his pride in May and approached Bielsa about returning for one Last Dance. The Argentine coach gave him a one word answer, and it wasn’t yes. Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa speaks to the media after the match (Reuters) Nahitan Nandez, a Suarez ally, was also left out and his omission was such a surprise that Bielsa had to come out and clarify that it was for “footballing reasons only”. Matias Vecino had been jettisoned in 2024, but quieter Suarez allies were still included. Uruguay didn’t have enough talent to leave them out, but it meant the camp was split before they arrived at their tournament training base in Cancun. This morning they were cleaning that base out. To say that the Suarez fallout was the turning point of this reign would be an understatement. And it may prove to be the end of a famous coaching career. Over decades of managing football teams in his idiosyncratic style, Bielsa has amassed something of a cult following. When the players buy in, they truly buy in. Think of Chile’s success, knocking out world champions Spain at the 2014 World Cup playing scintillating football, or Leeds United, where he held the city in the palm of his hand after returning them to the Premier League. He is so revered at Newell’s Old Boys that their stadium is named after him, not something that tends to happen to people while they’re still living, let alone coaching. Spain's Alex Baena scores their first goal past Uruguay's Fernando Muslera (Reuters) There have also been famous blow-ups. At Lazio, his reign can be counted in days rather than months. In Lille you could count it in months but you’d only need one hand. At Marseille he resigned after losing the first game of his second season. Now, if you’ve ever been in a room with Marcelo Bielsa then you’ll know he’s not exactly brimming with traditional charisma. The way that the Argentine has won over players and united teams in the past is through his work, rather than his glittering personality. In the wake of the Suarez rupture, the squad never felt fully united or even uniteable, if that is even a word. A coach who, more than most, needs absolute buy-in was dealing with a split squad that had been destabilised to the point of dysfunction and seeded with doubts. The famous Uruguayan spirit, la garra charrúa , is a never-say-die attitude named for the natives who lived on the pampas long before Europeans arrived, and represents those typical battling qualities you would associate with their teams of the past. Not so much the one we’ve seen over the past two weeks. As a country with a small population, talent development is always going to be a puzzle for the AUF. The domestic league is tiny, dominated financially by two giants from the capital, and so much of the best talent leaves in its teenage years to develop in their bigger neighbours or further afield — a similar set-up to somewhere like Ireland. Uruguay's Darwin Nunez reacts against Spain (Reuters) Their success over recent decades has come from building a tough-tackling, rock-solid team in defence and midfield, infused with that garra charrúa , while affording freedom to a generation of elite attacking players. Diego Forlan propelled them to success in 2010, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez then followed. With a solid base, that stellar attacking talent (all of whom are still relentless harriers out of possession) made Uruguay a frightening opponent. Now, their elite talent is in defence and midfield while the attack has more questions than answers. And when you are a smaller country needing everything to go right for you, your biggest name and best player having the sort of stinker all tournament that Federico Valverde did basically buries you. Similarly Darwin Nuñez, all flailing limbs and unfulfilled potential, did not have the sort of campaign you need when you’ve just become a free agent. There is no real need to dwell on Fernando Muslera’s performances, but any team would underperform if their veteran keeper made errors that led to goals in three consecutive games. Who would have thought that Luis Suarez would be more famous for making saves over his World Cup career than Muslera, who was taken off at half-time in Guadalajara and has likely played his last Uruguay game. Marcelo Bielsa delivers a crazy interview after Uruguay’s elimination (Reuters) Last week, a group of senior players including Manuel Ugarte, who went off injured in Guadalajara with a serious-looking injury, Rodrigo Bentancur and Valverde had approached Bielsa about changing the team’s tactics, reducing the intensity of training and imploring him to play a more counter-attacking style in the crunch fixture with Spain. Once again, Bielsa declined. The resultant defeat was now almost certainly his last match in charge. The future is going to look different. Uruguay do at least have the privilege of playing in the South American qualifiers, where in the days of 48-team tournaments it’s pretty difficult not to make it to the big dance. Six of the 10 nations from CONMEBOL are in the USA — Bolivia lost a playoff — and it’s incredibly rare for Uruguay to not be among the South American group. So they can expect to be back in four years but with a group of players, and coaching staff, that does things a little differently. Some of the older talent will not return and younger prospects will be introduced. In attack, there is hope in the shape of Joaquin Lavega. He and Santiago Homenchenko, a midfielder by trade, but who Bielsa also liked as a marauding central defender, have both been called up before and now seem like obvious key pieces during the next cycle. Federico Valverde comes off with Marcelo Bielsa looking on (Getty) But they must for once look forward, not back. Last year in Montevideo there was a fancy drinks reception celebrating the 75th anniversary of Uruguay’s second World Cup win. The Maracanazo, their historic defeat of Brazil in the final game of that tournament, probably represents the country’s most famous moment on a global stage in any sphere, not just sport. Those two World Cup wins are now generations ago, and while there aren’t delusions of grandeur here, sandwiched as they are between two giants and aware of their own limitations, those ancient glories never die but they can only fuel you for so long. Perhaps the miracle all along was that this country, the size of Wales, has always been able to keep pace with the biggest fish, but right now it feels like they are drowning.