Not a single tournament has passed since they went their separate ways for Gustavo Leal and André Jardine to face each other in a playoff series in Mexican soccer. The key between Atlético de San Luis and América is marked by this duel of Brazilian strategists, who worked together for a long time.
In addition to having achieved Olympic gold with Brazil in Tokyo 2020, they took charge of the Potosí team last year. Jardine left just before Apertura 2023 to take over at Coapa and left his former assistant in charge, who is now enjoying a great first semester as head coach. Leal, however, does not forget everything he learned during the previous stage.
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Gustavo Leal, grateful for having been André Jardine’s assistant
“I had it in my head that at some point in my career, to complete my development as a coach, I would need to work as an assistant with someone with a little more experience to have some visions, exchange ideas on some things, mature some thoughts, witness some situations. . And I always had in mind that I had to be a coach with whom I agreed regarding the ideas of the game. Because it would be very difficult to work with a coach where we thought opposite in that,” explained the 37-year-old helmsman, in an interview for ESPN.
“And André was precisely that coach with whom we could develop together. I think that in the same way that I developed working with him, he also developed, in some ways, working with me. It was a very successful partnership, because we managed to qualify for the Olympic Games, which is not easy, win that Olympic gold, then come here and change the status of the club. Because, as I already said, there is a structural, economic plan and everything,” he added.
Although Jardine has decided to leave Atlético de San Luis, Leal wishes him the best and hopes to build on what he has already achieved in the Potosí team. “But we know that without results things do not progress as they should. So we also managed to give those results that the project needed at that time and now at this moment we are continuing to support André in the hope that he goes far in America and continues to prosper in his career, and we will try to surpass the marks that he left here”.
