Diego Simeone, Atletico Madrid and a Champions League 'obsession' fuelled by pain

Simeone has twice suffered Champions League final heartbreak with Atletico Madrid (Javier Soriano/Getty Images .Visual design by Kelsea Petersen) Share articleIn the summer of 2025, a DAZN documentary about Diego Simeone was broadcast on Spanish television. Simeone. Revelado (Simeone: Revealed) featured an in-depth interview with the Atletico Madrid manager, during which he was shown photographs of his greatest moments since joining the club. He was then asked by the voice behind the camera: “What photo is missing?” “You all know what I’m missing,” Simeone replied with a sharp smile. “Just write it down,” he was told. Simeone took a big black marker and wrote ‘Win the Champions League’ on a piece of white card. He then gamely held it up to the camera, adding with another flash of his teeth: “There’s no point hiding it.” Since taking over as Atletico coach in December 2011, Simeone has led the club to victory in every other competition they have entered in Spanish and European competition, claiming two La Liga titles, the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de Espana, the UEFA Super Cup and the Europa League twice. The Champions League has remained out of reach. Over their 12 campaigns in the competition before this season, Atletico have twice fallen at the group stage, three times in the last 16, four times in the quarter-finals and once in the semi-finals. They have lost in the final twice, in 2014 and 2016, both times to Real Madrid. Yet Simeone and his team have kept coming back for more. Their dramatic 3-2 aggregate quarter-final victory over Barcelona earlier this month earned them a place in the final four for the first time since 2017. With Arsenal to come in Wednesday’s semi-final first leg at their Estadio Metropolitano home, a key set of questions comes to the fore. Could Atletico’s long wait to win the Champions League finally soon come to an end? Or will Simeone’s obsessive desire to win the one trophy that has always eluded him weigh too heavily on his team? This article contains information gathered from various well-placed sources, who each asked to speak anonymously to protect relationships. Atletico’s painful history in the European Cup or Champions League is a long one. They were seconds away from winning the 1974 final before Bayern Munich equalised to force a replay, which they won 4-0. During Simeone’s time as an Atleti player, Ajax’s Tijani Babangida scored a 119th-minute goal at their old home ground, the Estadio Vicente Calderon, to decide a 1996-97 quarter-final. Eighteen months after taking over as coach, Simeone then guided Atletico against all odds to a Champions League final, which they again had within their grasp until Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos headed a 93rd-minute equaliser, and their city rivals eventually won 4-1 after extra time. Two years later, a second final against Real Madrid brought more heartbreak, with Atletico beaten in a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw. The 2014 defeat in Lisbon was balanced by Atletico having won La Liga a week before. The second loss hurt a lot more, and Simeone publicly suggested he would step down as he doubted he could bring the team any further. “To lose two finals is a failure,” he said in his post-match press conference that night in Milan. “Not giving our fans what they wanted is what hurts me more than anything else. It’s a moment to think now.” Simeone then spent a fortnight with family in his native Argentina, brooding over a defeat for which he blamed himself. Fears built at Atletico that Simeone would resign. Eventually, chief executive Miguel Angel Gil and sporting director Nicola Berta flew to Buenos Aires for a meeting which concluded with Simeone agreeing to stay, with an amended contract. A post shared by Diego Pablo Simeone (@simeone) Since 2016, a lot of things have changed at Atletico. The club has moved to a new stadium and the squad has been rebuilt various times. The team has won more big trophies, such as the 2017-18 Europa League and 2020-21 La Liga title. But in the Champions League, the hard-luck stories and missed opportunities have kept accumulating. A particular low point was their 2022-23 group-stage exit, after which private tensions with Gil Marin broke into the open and a divorce seemed likely. Things were patched up again, and Simeone remained to become by far the longest-serving manager of any top Champions League club. Paris Saint-Germain, Inter and Chelsea are among the clubs who offered him potential new challenges but he stayed, due to what multiple sources who know him say is an “obsession” with winning Europe’s biggest prize. Simeone himself preferred to phrase it a different way when he last renewed his Atletico contract in November 2023. “I don’t feel it as an obsession, that would be the wrong path,” he said in a press conference. “I see it as a dream, which is something positive. And we all share that dream.” Last season, the dream seemed to be coming closer again when Atletico outplayed Real Madrid for much of their Champions League last-16 fixture. The tie went to a penalty shootout, where a Julian Alvarez spot kick disallowed by VAR for a tiny ‘double touch’ doomed them to another excruciating defeat against their neighbours. FIFA later changed the rules so that penalties converted in such circumstances would be retaken in future. That did not lessen the familiar pain for anyone at Atletico, and especially not Simeone. Atletico were deeply in debt before Simeone returned as coach in late 2011. After 13 successive seasons of Champions League money, it is now a European super club in which United States-based asset management firm Apollo took a majority stake earlier this year. The past 18 months have seen serious investment in new players. Argentina forward Alvarez headlined Aletico’s summer spending of over €200million (£173.4m; $234.3m) in 2024. Another €150m was spent last year on talents including Spain international playmaker Alex Baena and U.S. holding midfielder Johnny Cardoso. The club’s wage bill is now around €300m, and Simeone himself remains among the best-paid coaches in world football. This means more pressure on all involved. Five years since the 2020-21 La Liga title now makes it the longest trophyless run of Simeone’s time on the bench. But the idea of finally getting his hands on the one trophy he lacks is what drives him to return each season anew, says an industry source who knows him. “Diego wants to continue every year, he comes back with so much energy as he wants to win the Champions League,” the source says. “He’s obsessive. That’s his personality.” A coach like that is not always easy to deal with. Since their most recent final appearance of 2016, many players have come and gone. Only club captain Koke and Antoine Griezmann remain. Not all those signed along the way have been able to take their boss’s intensity. “Diego has such a strong personality, for good or bad,” says a source close to a first-teamer. “To survive in the ‘Simeone universe’ you need to be able to handle the pressure he generates,” says another source around the club. Taking just two points from their first three games of this season effectively ended Atletico’s La Liga title chances by September. It has also allowed them to focus on the cups in recent months. Their Champions League campaign has been a rollercoaster, with painful losses to Liverpool, Arsenal and Bodo Glimt in the group stage, rousing wins over Club Brugge and Tottenham in their first knockout ties, then a titanic struggle against Barcelona in the quarter-finals. “To keep seeing the team compete makes me emotional,” Simeone said in his post-match press conference once progress against Barca was sealed, a glint in his eye. “We’ve started over so many times, and we’re back among the best four teams in Europe. We’ll go for what we’ve been searching for all these years with excitement, faith, respect and humility.” That positive mood quickly deflated with a Copa del Rey final defeat on penalties by Real Sociedad. Sources close to the Atletico squad say it has been difficult to pick themselves up. After a 3-2 loss at struggling Elche last Wednesday and Saturday’s 3-2 victory over mid-table Athletic Club, they are fourth in La Liga, a whopping 25 points behind leaders Barcelona. But everyone at the club — fans, players, directors and especially the super-intense coach — knows that the biggest prize is still possible. Multiple sources close to the squad and the club also admit that if he does finally win a Champions League this season, Simeone, whose contract is due to run until June 2027, could well leave. “His cycle would be complete,” says one. Wednesday’s semi-final first leg against Arsenal at the Metropolitano falls the day after his 56th birthday. The near-coincidence will not be lost on the Argentine, who has a superstitious side and believes in fate, sources who know him say. “Only God knows why he’s not let us win it yet,” Simeone told last summer’s DAZN documentary. “I don’t know when it will fall for us, but it will.” Spot the pattern. 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