Marcelo Bielsa doesn’t do one-on-one interviews. Ever. Or virtually never. In 2020, he was coaxed by Leeds United’s then owner, Andrea Radrizzani, into contributing to an Amazon Prime documentary about the club’s promotion to the Premier League which he masterminded as head coach. But he spoke under duress, inviting no questions and hitting the camera crew with an uninterrupted monologue. Exclusive media work is out.He isn’t big on corporate events either, hence why when Leeds arranged a dinner to mark their centenary a few months later — a black-tie event — Bielsa arrived late and wore a club tracksuit, having been knee-deep in toil at the training ground (he and his staff work all the hours God sends). It should be pointed out here that Leeds’ supporters loved these idiosyncrasies. His football was extraordinary — truly, it was — and his mannerisms added to his mystique. It’s pretty simple with Bielsa. He’s here for the sport, and he’s here for the crowds. Everything else is a sideshow, and the commercialisation of football most of all.This will go some way to explaining the video of Bielsa which is going viral. It’s a front-on shot of the Uruguay coach, broadcast on Mexican TV as the line-ups were announced before his team’s 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia. It seems it was taken from FIFA’s official pre-World Cup shoot. He’s dressed in a dark blue T-shirt with ‘Uruguay’ on the front, he’s set against a dazzling background and he’s choosing to stare straight at the ground, strictly refusing to maintain eye-contact with the camera. He was later asked by journalists why he had been reluctant to engage. “I’m not a model,” he said, as if he was stating the obvious.