It has been almost 13 years since Diego Pablo Simeone (Buenos Aires, 1970) said ‘yes, I want’ to Atlético de Madrid. That of the red and white club and the Argentine coach is a love story that goes back years, specifically to 1994, when the then player signed for the team for five seasons. There, it was erected as a fan idola task that he also now embodies on the benches.
The Colchonero coach will face off this Sunday with one of his great nightmares, the Real Madrid by Carlo Ancelotti, in a new and tense derby to which both teams arrive having left many doubts during the start of the season. The Metropolitano will host this new duel between the two teams from the capital, with two of the biggest stars of the moment in LaLigaKylian Mbappé and Julián Álvarez, seeing each other for the first time.
Whatever happens in the match, Simeone will have behind him the full support of his five children and his current wife, Carla Pereyra. We review everything you need to know about the most personal side of the Atlético de Madrid coach, Diego Pablo Simeone.
A childhood linked to football and the origin of the nickname ‘Cholo’
Born and raised in San Nicolás neighborhood In Buenos Aires, Diego Pablo Simeone had a very calm and problem-free childhood thanks to the stability of his family environment: his mother was a hairdresser and his father, Carlos Alberto “Giovanni”, played soccer for a time as an amateur and, later, became a dedicated to commerce. Like his father, he began to try his luck in the world of football very early on and made it clear that his passion was innate in his blood: «When he started to speak, the first word was goal», his father said years later.
His career began in Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfieldwhere coincidentally the nickname that accompanies him almost 50 years later also emerged: ‘Cholo’. He was his then coach, Victorio Spinetto, who granted him this characteristic nickname that another footballer had previously had: Carmelo ‘Cholo’ Simeonewho had played for several years for Boca Juniors and the Argentine National Team.
Both Carmelo (who died in 2014) and Diego Pablo shared a last name – although They were not related─ and style of play, so Spinetto decided to recover this nickname for his new pupil. ‘Cholo’ is the word used in Latin American countries to designate the people with European and Native American blood in which indigenous features stand out more.
At the age of 17, Simeone would finally begin his professional career in the team where he had trained, Vélez Sarsfield, with which He debuted in the First Division in 1987. Shortly after this success, he would end up landing in the Pisa Italianwhere he remained two seasons, before making the jump to the Spanish league. It was the Sevilla who would give him the first opportunity and there he established himself as a midfielder, which allowed him in 1994 to meet for the first time the great love of his life: the Atlético de Madrid.
Marriage and divorce with Carolina Baldini after rumors of infidelity
It was at this same time, after signing for the team of his life, when the young Diego Pablo Simeone would finally say ‘I do’ with his girlfriend, the model Carolina Baldiniwhom he had met in a nightclub where she worked two years ago. So, the young Argentine, six years younger The midfielder abandoned her career in the modeling world to follow her husband and start a family wherever she went. During their almost 15 years of marriage, They had three children: Giovanni, Gianluca and Giuliano.
However, all that glittered in that relationship was not gold. In 2008, Baldini and Simeone put end to their relationship amid rumors of infidelity on her part that were never confirmed. It was even said that he had been disloyal to a teammate, also a footballer. José Luis Pérez Caminero. Good proof of these accusations has been left in the stands of the stadiums, where for years the chant sounded «Caminero, I fucked you… your partner’s wife».
The couple tried give yourself a new chance in 2011just the same year in which the Argentine returned to Atlético de Madrid to lead the team. However, shortly after the couple’s final breakup was confirmed.
Cholo Simeone and his ex-wife, the model Carolina Baldini
RS
Since that rugged separation, Simeone had remained silent regarding this relationship, something that his ex-wife had not done. In statements to the LAM program, Baldini assured that “The separation was on good terms”: «There is always something, I’m not going to lie to you. But the truth is that he was very friendly. I was the one who made the decision to separate us. I gave everything in the couple and I have nothing left. “Love is over,” he then noted regarding the reasons for their breakup.
Some words that the coach did not like at all, who defended himself and launched some harsh accusations against his ex-partner: «I’m tired of him coming out to talk after 15 years. Even more so knowing that I never talked about everything that happened and the damage it caused. She keeps talking as if no one has memory. I got tired of trying to take care of my children and protect them from their environment. There is no turning back. She broke strong family codes and I have no more patience», he stated a couple of years ago in the newspaper La Nación.
«I got tired of trying to take care of my children and protect them from the environment. There is no turning back. “She (Carolina Baldini) broke strong family codes and I have no more patience.”
His love story with his wife Carla Pereyra
Despite this bad experience in the world of love, Cholo Simeone has not been afraid when it comes to opening the doors to falling in love again. And so it happened in 2014, when he met his current wife, the model Carla Pereyra, 17 years younger than him and with whom he has formed a family in recent years.
The couple met, as they say, by chance after meeting for the first time in a restaurant in Madrid. «It was very funny. I met him in a restaurant. I went to the bathroom and he followed me…», acknowledged the coach’s wife, who recognized him instantly because she was an Atlético de Madrid fan. When he left the bathroom, she congratulated him for his good work as the club’s coach, but his response was very different: «I’m waiting for you», the Argentine told him.
At first, the model did not fall for her current husband’s gossip when he showed interest in her. «I am from Paraná, I am Argentine. “Don’t tell me the story,” he told him at the time, without knowing that he would end up becoming the great love of his life. From there, the couple began to get to know each other and, as Pereyra has acknowledged, Their first date was in a central Madrid cinema. on an afternoon of heavy rain. Since then, they became inseparable.
The couple The ‘yes, I want’ ended up being said in 2019 in a ceremony held at Italian Tuscanywhere the famous tenor Andrea Bocelli performed.
Three soccer sons and two younger daughters
Together with Carla Pereyra, the former Argentine soccer player once again became the father of the little girl in 2016. Francesca7 years old, and shortly after Valentinawhich just turned five years old. Although it was the first experience in the world of motherhood for the model, it was not for Cholo, who had already been a father three times with his ex-wife.
The three children of the mattress technician, Giovanni (29), Gianluca (26) y Giuliano (21) have never had a problem with their father’s new life and have always been happy with it: «We had this moment in life and everything they say is true. The key was patience, love. The one who sees that our house was their house when they came. That they didn’t have to ask permission for anything. And that between his dad and me there was a healthy relationship. I think that when children see that in their father or mother they make things much more natural», said the model when talking about the relationship.
Both Giovanni and Gianluca y Giuliano They have followed in their father’s footsteps in the world of football, some with more fortune and talent than others. This last one, the youngest of all, is the only one who has put himself in the hands of his father, since, since this season, he has signs in Atleti’s first team and stands out to be one of the great promises of the rojiblanco club.
His brothers have had less luck, who have somewhat minor roles in other teams. Gio Simeone has been consolidated in the Napoleonsa club he joined in 2022 after passing through several Calcio teams, although he has a substitute role that has not managed to change at the moment. For its part, Gianlucathe middle brother, is the one who has had a somewhat more humble career: he currently plays as striker at Rayo Majadahonda of Second Spanish Federationalthough he has also played for higher-ranking teams such as UD Ibiza.
