'Don't shoot, I'm Bielsa!'

Posted Saturday, October 03, 2015 by Goal.com

Engrossed in his tactical studies during a run, the ex-Argentina coach was surprised by security guards and narrowly escaped calamity after being mistaken for an intruder

Former Marseille boss Marcelo Bielsa is known for taking football extremely seriously.

But on one occasion the Argentine's famous attention to detail and focus almost led to disastrous consequences, as he was mistaken for a potential kidnapper by security guards.

Ex-goalkeeper Pablo Cavallaro recalled an incident while he was with the national squad at the turn of the century, when Bielsa came close to a sticky end.

"It was 2001, a time when there were a lot of kidnappings. Back then if you went to Ezeiza, you could climb over the fence, get into the facilities and it was easy to reach Bielsa's room, so when the national team was there they started to put security guards and mounted police there," Cavallaro told the Arroban television channel.

"Bielsa used to say there were 22 tactical formulas. He had a CD recorded by himself in which he had numbered the tactics and stated how to counteract them.

"At night he would go out running listening to the CD on a Discman. One day he went out at two in the morning with a woolly cap.

"Security saw a guy moving around and they went to arrest him. He didn't hear anything because he had the CD on and he got scared when he saw the lights.

"'I'm Bielsa, don't shoot me!' he cried".