Simeone draws level with Luis Aragonés as the winningest coach in LaLiga history

Some numbers take years to build, and when they finally arrive, they say far more than a simple stat line ever could. Saturday was one of those moments: with a 2-0 win over Levante at the Ciudad de Valencia, Diego Simeone reached 344 victories at the helm of Atletico Madrid, pulling level with Luis Aragonés as the coach with the most wins in LaLiga history, counting every club and every era.

What stands out isn't just matching the legendary "Sage of Hortaleza," a towering figure for Atletico both as a player and as a coach. It's how Simeone got there. Aragonés needed 757 matches spread across eight different clubs (Atletico, Barcelona, Betis, Espanyol, Mallorca, Sevilla, Valencia and Oviedo) to rack up those 344 wins. Simeone has done it in 565 games, all of them on the same bench, Atletico Madrid's. That's 192 fewer matches to reach the identical total.

Trailing behind are names who also wrote important chapters in the competition's history: Miguel Muñoz's 323 wins, Ernesto Valverde's 278, Manuel Pellegrini's 271 (still active today at Betis), Javier Irureta's 259, who also came through Atletico as a player, and further back, the totals of Fernando Daucik, Marcelino García Toral, Javier Clemente and Víctor Fernández.

A debut steeped in history

To understand the full arc, you have to go back to January 7, 2012, when Simeone made his debut as Atletico's coach in a 0-0 draw against Malaga at La Rosaleda. The first win came barely a week later, on January 15, 2012, a resounding 3-0 victory over Villarreal at the now-demolished Vicente Calderon, in front of 48,000 fans. Radamel Falcao shone that day with a brace, alongside Diego Ribas, two names who would later prove crucial in the first Europa League title Cholo won, the opening trophy of the eight he has since collected with the club.

Of that starting eleven (Courtois; Juanfran, Miranda, Godin, Filipe Luis; Diego Ribas, Tiago Mendes, Gabi, Arda Turan; Adrian and Falcao), only one survivor remains today: Koke, who incidentally couldn't be on hand this Saturday due to injury, right as the team celebrated this milestone.

The goal that sealed win number 344 belonged to Alejandro Grimaldo, who unleashed a rocket from outside the box in the 36th minute that goalkeeper Matthew Ryan had no chance of stopping. Fittingly, the Ciudad de Valencia is one of those grounds that has historically given Simeone's Atletico trouble, a consistently tricky venue throughout this whole run.

Saturday's starting lineup looked nothing like the one from 2012: Oblak, who came up big with a key save on Dani Requena; Marcos Llorente, Pubill, Hancko, Grimaldo; Giuliano Simeone, Pablo Barrios, Hjulmand, Alex Baena; Kang in Lee and Julian Alvarez. Sorloth, Jonathan David, Le Normand, Lookman and Rodrigo Mendoza all came on off the bench.

After the match, Simeone was eager to share the credit with his players, speaking to Movistar+:

"Honestly, I have to say this is a gift from a lot of players who have followed a path and put in incredible work. Truthfully, I feel like it belongs far less to me than it does to all of them. I feel very close to every player who helped me get to where I am, and I'm grateful every day to still be at Atletico Madrid, because this is where I want to be and I always dreamed of building everything we're building here. We're going to give everything until the very last day, that's the only thing on my mind."Diego Simeone

With this win, Atletico has now reeled off seven straight victories in LaLiga and heads into next Sunday's showdown against Barcelona with momentum, and the league lead on the line.