After a historic 2024, forged in the trauma of 2023, Botafogo carried into 2025 the weight of planning errors made largely thanks to John Textor’s superb performance at the start of the season.
But the urgency shown during the search for Anselmi and the profile of the Argentine coach show that the American leader seems to have once again learned from his mistakes.
A fanatical Newell fan influenced by his father, Anselmi has always been obsessed with football. But as he never had any ball talent, he knew from a very young age what he wanted: to become a coach. And being from Newell’s, Bielsa has always been his big inspiration.
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Although he studied sports journalism, Anselmi says he has never been a journalist and doesn’t really like talking about the subject. In Argentina, the minimum age to enter a coaching school was 25, and studying sports journalism was the way he found to keep his relationship with football alive until he finally reached the age to begin academic training.
During his training as a coach, he sold his motorbike to pay for a trip to Spain to watch Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao play up close in the Copa del Rey final against Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in 2012.
Once his studies were completed, a year later, he abandoned the family business (a printing house) to work for free as an assistant to a former professor at the Independiente de Avellaneda base. There he met Gabriel Milito, who had worked with Guardiola at Barcelona.
A follower of the school of positional play, this trip to Spain to watch Bielsa against Guardiola was almost a pilgrimage to the Promised Land. See with your own eyes what has always inspired you the most.
And working with Milito, personally observing someone who experienced the concepts of positional play, generated a “before and after” for Anselmi.
The essence of the model that he managed, 10 years later, to transfer to the field, both to Independiente del Valle and to Cruz Azul. Teams that took care of possession like few others and controlled the matches with all positions participating in the organization of the game, in a structured and collective manner.
Anselmi is a prodigy, just 40 years old, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise to reach a European giant like Porto, just three years after taking charge of the first team as head coach.
I don’t know of a similar story, someone so young and without an athletic background or family connection to the world of football reaching the European elite so quickly. All thanks to the brilliant work being done in Ecuador and Mexico. Teams that played like music led by a charismatic commander renowned for his genius.
Although he was thrown to the lions when he arrived at Porto in crisis midway through last season, his quick move to Dragão says more about André Villas-Boas’ turbulent and controversial management than it does about him.
It was a traumatic departure, but it allowed Anselmi to take a step back, to recharge his batteries for a while here in Spain, where he was able to exchange experiences with promising coaches like Marcelino, at Villarreal, and Iñigo Pérez, at Rayo Vallecano, while carefully choosing his next project.
He did not want to join a European team while the season was underway because he understood that to implement his idea he needed time and the right players.
Although his name was used by several candidates during Newell’s election campaign, coaching his favorite team was never a possibility.
Led by the same representative as Arthur Jorge, Abel Ferreira and Leonardo Jardim, the Portuguese Hugo Cajuda, Anselmi has always enjoyed a trip to Brazil.
So much so that the club that came closest to signing him was Atlético-MG, who offered a much higher salary than Botafogo. But a deeper analysis of the casting made the Argentinian think that it was not the ideal project.
The surprising announcement of Davide Ancelotti’s departure opened a door that Anselmi and Cajuda did not expect and which they both saw as the opportunity he was looking for. The connection with black and white leaders was instantaneous. The objectives and ambitions for 2026 were aligned, the balanced workforce is pleasing, and the lightning agreement was good for everyone.
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