Champions League final: Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino’s family ties to Hearts and Hibs

Perhaps Sebastiano Pochettino or his younger brother, Maurizio, might produce a green shirt or maroon scarf inside Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano tonight if their father’s Tottenham Hotspur side lift the Champions League trophy.

The story linking one of world football’s most progressive coaches to the Edinburgh clubs is nothing if not intriguing. Pochettino played at Tynecastle for Bordeaux in a 2003 UEFA Cup tie. He helped eliminate Hearts 2-1 on aggregate but would have had no inkling of his two sons developing such affection for Hearts and Hibs years later.

Sebastiano, 23, is Spurs’ first-team sports scientist and will be beside his dad in the dugout against Liverpool this evening. His favourite Scottish team is Hibs. Maurizio, 18, is one of the London club’s youth players and will watch from the stand. In Scotland, he supports Hearts.

Pochettino in action for Bordeaux against Hearts at Tynecastle back in 2003. Pic: TSPL

Their allegiance to Tottenham and their father should not be questioned despite the Capital leanings. The connection came to light in 2016 not long after Hibs ended their 114-year wait to win the Scottish Cup. Manager Alan Stubbs left to join Rotherham United that summer and was soon invited to bring his new team to Spurs’ Enfield training complex for a closed-door friendly.

Pochettino took him into his office afterwards for an hour-long conversation. “I didn’t have a clue Mauricio had any links to Edinburgh,” admitted Stubbs. “I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to chat to him. I wanted to ask him a few questions about how he implemented his philosophy at Tottenham.

“To be honest, I didn’t even get a chance. The first thing he said was: ‘Fantastic what you did in the summer. Me and my family were all round the TV watching the final.’ I couldn’t believe it. I was really taken aback but I couldn’t get a word in edgeways.

“Then his son, Sebastiano, came over and he’s like: ‘Oh my God. Alan Stubbs, thank you so much. I’m a big Hibs fan and we watched the final.’ I was star-struck getting to meet Pochettino and then it was like that had flipped the other way round, as if I was the star. The other son, Maurizio, supports Hearts.

“I think it came about because maybe one of them studied in Edinburgh at some point. They have obviously watched Edinburgh derbies. I think that’s why one is a Hibs fan and one is a Hearts fan. It seems a bit strange but you get stories like that a lot in football. The game brings people together from all backgrounds and cultures.”

Pochettino’s own story is just as compelling. From the remote farming town of Murphy in Argentina’s Santa Fe Province, he grew to represent his country at the 2002 World Cup. Newell’s Old Boys, Paris Saint-Germain, Espanyol and Bordeaux are all on his playing CV. Victory tonight would be the pinnacle of his career, however.

“Mauricio is a fantastic person,” said Stubbs. “He is very humble, has a great personality, great knowledge and is a student of the game. He had a persona about him. He believed in what he was doing and he had everyone else around him believing what he was doing. He had only been at Tottenham a couple of years but his philosophy and structure was being fed in to everybody. It was a case of: ‘Give everyone a chance but you do it my way and that’s it.’

“Some of the Spurs players were potential back then but now they are top players. That tells you everything about Pochettino bringing the best out of them. He is one to listen to. He hasn’t signed many players in the last two seasons but his team are still competing in the Champions League final.”

The Tottenham defender Danny Rose spoke in the build-up to tonight’s game about Pochettino’s mindset and sense of conviction. His words offered a small insight into the way this captivating Argentinian operates.

“Since I’ve been at the club, being in a Champions League final has never entered my thought process,” said Rose. To think that we’re 90 minutes away from maybe lifting the Champions League trophy, I never thought that could happen at Tottenham.

“Now I understand what he [Pochettino] means. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe him, I just didn’t understand. It shows that’s why he’s the manager and I’m the player.”