Giuliano Simeone joined Atlético’s academy in 2019, but he’s not just dining out on having a famous surname. Halfway through his second campaign with the first team, the 23-year-old is proving he has the technical quality, character and grit to live up to his father’s legendary standards.
It takes a certain type of player to play for Diego Simeone. We had a good idea that would be the case when he became the Atlético Madrid manager in December 2011 – and we sure do now, some 14 years later.
For Simeone, however, it hasn’t always been easy to find those players. After his first title win in 2014, Atlético were catapulted into a new dimension of growth; one that brought bigger budgets, a shiny new stadium, and made more talented players accessible.
But while those resources were welcome, it hasn’t made it any easier to preserve their blue-collar DNA. Remaining a hard-nosed Simeone team while accommodating ‘stars’ is a process they have had to endure much trial and error with since 2014.
One of the more novel solutions in this period has been the arrival of Simeone’s son, Giuliano, who joined the club’s academy in 2019.
Where his father seeks footballers who live and conduct themselves in the way he would if he could still wear the Atlético shirt, what better than an actual Simeone? Even better, how about a Simeone who turns up every day trying to prove he’s not playing only because of his surname?
Given the opportunity, few doubted that Giuliano would have the character to represent the club. The question was whether he’d have sufficient quality to go with it, or whether he’d rapidly hit a ceiling of being enthusiastic to his detriment; his pure footballing qualities never quite able to close the gap to the physical and emotional ones, and limiting his possibilities at first-team level.
In the beginning, it looked like a fair question to ask. But halfway through his second campaign, the 23-year-old is now well on the way to providing an emphatic answer.
Born to Play for Atlético Madrid
Giuliano’s DNA will always be his calling card on the pitch. Aggressive, intense, and driven by an innate desire to compete, his minimum contribution on a weekly basis is anything but the minimum. He is a throwback competitor who ensures that his less precise days are sustained by a contagious physical effort.
“[Giuliano] transmits something that is very difficult to go and buy. Either you have it or you don’t,” says father Diego.
The best news for manager and club alike, however, is that Giuliano’s character is starting to become less relevant. One, for the fact that we now take it as an immovable trait. And two, that we’re now seeing him able to influence matches in more varied ways, with increasingly decisive contributions on the attacking end. His seven assists in 28 games this term is already just two shy of his total from 50 appearances last season (9).
But we can confirm Giuliano’s progression, in part, even without delving into his goal production. One only need look at how much is father is now relying on him to gauge his growing importance.
In his first campaign between August 2024 and May 2025, Giuliano was the team’s eighth most-used outfielder in terms of minutes played (1,940). Since the Club World Cup last summer, he has played more than any other Atlético outfielder (2,342).
That’s an especially notable jump when considering the attacking recruits the club brought in last summer, in Álex Baena, Thiago Almada, Nico González and Giacomo Raspadori. When competition is harder than it once was, Giuliano is playing more than ever.
The key to that is his balanced contribution between attack and defence, and in particular, what happens when one turns into the other.
On the way from defence to attack, Giuliano is a transitional menace. Going the other way, he is feisty in his counter-pressing and generous in his recovery runs. So much so that it’s hard to know whether to refer to Giuliano as an attacking defender or a defensive attacker.
Either way, he is meshing both in a way that makes life easier for his father’s pursuit of team balance. (It’s worth noting that had the season started in September, rather than August, Atlético would be three points off the lead in La Liga and have the best defensive record in the division.)
From his starting position on the right wing, the 23-year-old constantly flows between right-back, wing-back, right midfielder and support striker over the course of 90 minutes, depending on the phase of the game.
Logically, that shapeshifting also happens on the team level, with Giuliano’s versatility a key ingredient in permitting Atlético to switch between formations and shapes on the go. Through his positionless mentality and commitment to each of those mini roles, more things are possible.
One of the clearest ways we see that is on the defensive side of the ball. Atlético use the classic 4-4-2 as a starting point but frequently shift in and out of back-five systems, depending on where on the field they’re defending.
Higher up the pitch, Simeone is a snappy presser who launches out to close down opposition full-backs. But if the opposition are established in possession, he drops back to form a back line of five, bolstering their defensive strength on the flanks and allowing the right-back to shift inside and cover another attacking channel.
The variable is, of course, the 22-year-old’s willingness to play that way. Try telling a €70-million winger that, along with being prominent in the final third and attacking the back post, he needs to play in the defensive line when Atlético – a team who are content to defend deep – don’t have the ball.
Nine times out of 10, that’s going to be a tough sell. For Giuliano, it’s simply his job.
While this grants Simeone Sr. more flexibility in setting Atlético up without the ball, in a more dynamic and modern take on collective defending, it also allows them to quickly switch between the main defensive approaches: being more aggressive from the 4-4-2/4-3-3 or defending in their own half with a back five.
Despite Atlético readily falling into that back-five shape with Giuliano tacked onto the right-hand side, the average distance from their own goal of their ball recoveries in La Liga this season (43 metres) is their highest since 2016-17 (43.1). Their possession average is also the highest in any La Liga season in the Simeone era (53.3%).
Rather than serving to make them more defensive, the back five has made them more variable in the ways they can defend.
Nobody embodies that spring from disciplined defending to energetic pressing more than Giuliano. In La Liga this season, no winger has more possession recoveries (81) or combined tackles and interceptions (45) than him. He is also the top-ranked winger for the expected goals (xG) value of sequences initiated (3.1), underlining his ability to recover the ball and tee-up scoring opportunities, typically high up the pitch.
It’s that bridge between defence and attack where Giuliano truly shines, and it’s part of what is making Atlético’s right side one of the most versatile and productive across Europe.
Giuliano Has Electrified the Right Wing (With Help From Marcos Llorente)
In La Liga this season, 40.5% of Atlético’s attacks have come down their right side; the third-highest percentage in the division. In the UEFA Champions League, that number jumps to 44.2%, which is the fourth highest out of 36 teams.
Spearheaded by Giuliano, their right flank is now a constant hive of activity. And that’s especially the case when he’s supported by Marcos Llorente at right-back. Together, they are a duo of Swiss army knives, constantly moving off each other and looking to attack the opposition’s defensive line at speed.
Even against deeper blocks who limit space, they are still frequently able to dart in behind through swift give-and-goes or a well-timed run if their opponents are a step slow.
Otherwise, pure speed to the byline and a cross has also been a frequent avenue of success. In an era where wingers playing on the side of their strong foot is becoming increasingly rare, Giuliano is one of few left at an elite European team still getting plenty out of driving, straight-line runs on his strong side.
Since the start of the Club World Cup, his six assists following a carry are the third-most by any player for a club in Europe’s big five leagues, behind only Michael Olise (10) and Vinícius Júnior (7). Of course, two players who very much lean on cutting onto their stronger foot.
Though he shares certain spaces with Europe’s elite wingers, Giuliano differs in how he gets to his preferred spots on the pitch. In the absence of jinking dribbles, precise feints and changes of direction, a la Vinícius, his success relies much more on what he’s doing when he doesn’t have the ball at his feet.
Through a blend of searing pace, a relentless motor, and improved timing of runs, Giuliano’s movement without the ball has become not only key to his own individual success, but Atlético Madrid’s as a team too.
It would be generous to claim their decision makers planned it this way, but the surprising rise of Giuliano – paired with Llorente’s right-back conversion – has occurred just at the same time as the squad has been majorly boosted in creative passing quality.
The result is that Atlético’s distributors now have devastating off-ball attackers to find, while the runners have faith that their movements will be found.
We can see that in the Champions League this season, where Giuliano leads all players for defensive line-breaking passes received (18), piercing the opponent’s back line an average of three times per game. Atlético, meanwhile, are the team who have played the most defensive line-breaking passes (48).
There’s an interesting distinction to be made for Atlético, in that respect. Although they are only just above the competition’s average for line-breaking passes (averaging 59 per game), the fact they are the top-ranked side when it comes to breaking the opposition’s defensive line tells us how they are engineered to come alive in the final third.
Simeone’s team swing the ball from side-to-side in their build-up, before sparking into action with quick, wide attacks – particularly on the right – when they arrive into the final third.
Along with leading all teams for defensive line-breaking passes in this season’s Champions League, Atlético also have the largest share of contributors to the cause. As mentioned previously, there is no single creator they rely on to feed passes in behind. They have the most different players (6) with at least five defensive line-breaking passes in this year’s edition. And that’s without Álex Baena – their best executor of the final pass – who has not yet joined the party due to injury-related absences.
Atlético have the feeders and for now, at least by the numbers, the premier defensive line attacker in the tournament. The resulting connection has been just the way that Diego Simeone – who has never been one for slow, methodical attacks – would have envisioned it, once his squad came together.
Inevitably, the foundation behind getting in behind the opposition as often as Giuliano does has a lot to do with mere repetition of attempts. His 53 runs in behind are the second-most by a winger in the Champions League this season, and the only two instances of an Atlético player with 10+ in a single match this term have both been by him.
Giuliano demands attentive defending for that sheer volume of testing runs. Take your eye off him or fail to match his movement and, eventually, he will punish that inattention:
In a season where Giuliano could reach 100 appearances for Atlético, it’s safe to say that he’s surpassed any expectations they might have had when he reported to pre-season training in the summer of 2024. From novelty to first-team fixture – and now Argentina international – his rise has been fuelled by spirit and maintained by individual development.
There are plenty of reasons why the club decided to extend his contract last week, tying him down until 2030. Being Diego Simeone’s son probably wasn’t the clincher.
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Giuliano Simeone: Atlético Madrid’s Swiss Army Knife Who’s Proved He Belongs on Merit Opta Analyst.
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