Marcelo Bielsa looks down during Fifa’s official World Cup 2026 portrait session. Photograph: Michael Regan/FIFA/Getty Images
View image in fullscreen: Marcelo Bielsa looks down during Fifa’s official World Cup 2026 portrait session. Photograph: Michael Regan/FIFA/Getty Images
‘I’m not a model’ – Uruguay’s Bielsa defends bizarre World Cup portrait
Head coach looked downwards in official Fifa photo. ‘The picture was taken the way it was taken.’
The Uruguay head coach, Marcelo Bielsa, has lived up to his maverick reputation by refusing to cooperate during a photoshoot for Fifa. Bielsa stared down at the floor, hands in pockets, statuesque, during the obligatory media duty last Wednesday and the 70-year-old hit back when asked about the incident after Uruguay’s 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia on Monday.
“I’m not a model,” he said. “I don’t have to give any explanation, the picture was taken the way it was taken. Should I also explain why I don’t look to the people who are speaking to me at this moment?”
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Bielsa continued his rant even when reporters moved on from the topic: “There is a limit in terms of what we need to explain. If I’m wearing glasses, why am I wearing glasses? You look somebody in the eye, why do you do that? There is nothing wrong about wearing glasses or looking into somebody’s eyes or looking down.”
The Getty photographers, Michael Regan and Molly Darlington, shot portraits of the Uruguay team in Cancún, Mexico, on 10 June. They had no trouble getting emotive photos of the players, but it is Bielsa’s awkward image that has become one of the first viral pictures of the tournament.
The Argentinian is well known for being eccentric: during his time as the Leeds United manager he would sit on a plastic bucket to relieve chronic back pain. He also paid the £200,000 fine the club received after spying on Derby in 2019.
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