Gerardo “Tata” Martino started playing for his local club, Newell’s Old Boys, in the city of Rosario, as a child. He made his debut in the first division aged 17, and went on to win three titles as a player. Legend says an eight-year-old Lionel Messi pleased the crowds with keepy-uppies during Martino’s send-off. He returned as manager and his club were champions again in 2013 and Martino’s contribution to the club’s history is now etched forever in the stand named after him. Becoming a champion as a player and manager, is, he says, “the most beautiful thing with my club. Not only that but I live 10 blocks from the stadium.”

When he says “I live”, perhaps he means it metaphorically. In reality he is currently living in Atlanta, USA, where he has taken on a new challenge. “[Atlanta United] came to see me in Rosario in September 2016 and asked if I was interested in participating in the project,” he says. “[MLS] wasn’t a league I followed closely, obviously not. But I had a few months to get to grips with it. We started talks in September 2016 and [Atlanta] started competing properly in February 2017. In that time I was able to embrace the system, familiarise myself with MLS, and with the footballing idea.”

'The World Cup final was played before 78,000 and a couple of hours later we played to a home attendance of 73,000

So, what took a man who had managed Argentina and Lionel Messi’s Barcelona to Atlanta United, a new club playing in the relative obscurity of MLS? “It was an opportunity to start the story from the beginning,” says Martino, who felt the blank canvas of creating a team from scratch wasn’t a million miles from his experience as a national manager. “You have the possibility of choosing who you want, because you have no one. Here it was the same. There was nothing. So … we built up gradually, calling up the players.”

Martino’s Atlanta United are a phenomenal success. In their first season, they reached the playoffs and their average home attendance of 48,200 outstripped European giants such as Chelsea and Juventus. “To give you an idea,” Martino explains, “France v Croatia at the World Cup final was played in front of [78,000] and a couple of hours later we played to a home attendance of 73,000.”

On the subject of the World Cup, Martino says problems off the pitch may have been to blame for Argentina’s disappointing campaign. “A lot was said and I don’t know how much was true, but some things really surprised me,” he says. “I was involved in Argentina at a time of much convulsion within the AFA … but I’ve never seen anything like the internal convulsion that seemed to take place at this World Cup. In this case there was an adverse impact on the sporting side.”

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Meanwhile, in MLS, Martino’s expertise in the Latin American market, coupled with Atlanta’s directors’ knowledge of North American players, has been a good formula. “We complement each other well,” Martino says. “We make a good duet.” He names club owner Arthur Blank, president Darren Eales, and technical director Carlos Bocanegra as the architects of this idea.

“We have a team that works well. That plays well,” Martino says, aware that they have achieved what they set out to do, and some. He finds MLS very interesting: “You have teams with very defined styles of play, very good work executed excellently. A very physical league, with teams like Columbus or Kansas who stand out through possession football, or [New York] Red Bulls, with a high-pressing game.” Martino is aware that many regard the league as a place where ageing stars go to end their careers, but he is quick to point out exceptions. “Look at a player like [David] Villa, he came here and far from ending his career [returned] as an international for Spain as a result of playing here.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tata Martino during his time with Barcelona. He says managing the club was ‘a treat’. Photograph: Miguel Ruiz/FC Barcelona via Getty Images

Canadian teenager Alphonso Davies’s recent transfer from MLS to Bayern Munich attracted plenty of attention. Does it prove the league can help develop young North American stars? “I think this is becoming a place a bit like maybe the Portuguese or Dutch leagues are in Europe; a place where young players can make the leap to the European top flight. I think there is a will to turn it into a league of young players, and that is one of the things that most attracted me to this project. There are very good young American players, and there are also very good and very young Latin American players. And also clubs that go for the big names that have had a great career in Europe. But we have a young squad; our players are not older than 25. And I like that. I like accompanying the development of young players.”

He gives the example of US Under-18 midfielder Andrew Carleton, who is still mostly a bench player but is very close to the first team: “He is currently Atlanta United’s best project; and there are many players his age in other teams. Davies is a case in point, sold to Bayern for a lot of money. Tyler Adams, from Red Bulls, could be another – most probably the same will happen with him.”

Why do I have to give explanations of why I’m here? I wanted to be here

Martino points out that MLS is not composed exclusively of players starting or ending their careers. “We have American players with a great career, like our goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who spent many years in the Premier League, or players like Leandro González Pírez, who came from Argentina and has the characteristics of a leader. Players that we have paid a lot of money for: Miguel Almirón, who came from [Lanús, where he was without doubt the best player in Argentina at the time] had an incredible season last season and isn’t just keeping it up but has actually improved so far this season. Josef Martínez, who came from Torino, and has scored 26 goals [Martínez has since tied the MLS single-season record of 27], and Tito Villalba from San Lorenzo.”

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Adapting to life in the US hasn’t been a struggle for Martino. “A lot of it has to do with personal tastes; it’s a country I’ve always liked. An opportunity to live a once-in-a-lifetime experience in a country I like … And also I was influenced by many years working in places of very high public exposure. This was a chance to get away from that a little bit.” He mentions “everything Barcelona or Argentina mean in terms of media”, and says there is something very refreshing in the US, where “the eyes of the nation turn to other sports such as baseball or basketball. He finds it “much easier to … concentrate on what I like and know, which is training my team. In my other jobs I wasted a lot of time on things which shouldn’t have taken up so much time.”

I mention that’s a very Marcelo Bielsa thing to say, and he laughs, aware that comparisons with the other Newell’s legend follow him around. But the comparison also makes him uneasy, saying on the one hand he feels the comparison is “divine” and that when the press say someone is “like Bielsa” one literally gets offered work. On the other, he says, the media are forever making pronouncements and then asking him to justify them. The same argument applies to his career, in a way. He has managed Barcelona (“a treat”) and Newell’s (“a double treat”); he relished his five years in Paraguay at national level, and enjoyed managing Argentina. “Why do I have to give explanations of why I’m here? I wanted to be here. And it’s been a boom!”

Martino sees his role as leading the team that accompanies the boom – the people, the stadium (which he says is the best in the world) – with a footballing concept that works well. Born into a club, in a city, in a country where football is intrinsic to identity, history and tradition, he is now conquering the new, in every sense.