Miguel Almirón & Tata Martino: Can they reignite Atlanta United? | OneFootball

By J. Sam Jones

If anyone can get the most out of Miguel Almirón, it’s Tata Martino.

Last year didn’t go according to plan for anyone at Atlanta United. The Five Stripes started 2025 as preseason contenders and ended the year one goal away from "winning" the Wooden Spoon (last place overall). Nothing clicked. Everyone looked frustrated. Head coach Ronny Deila was dismissed after one season in charge.

All considered, Almirón played fine. He ended the year with 6g/7a in 31 matches. He didn’t look like the best version of himself. Though, to be fair, nobody did.

Now, with Martino back at the helm of Atlanta United, something approaching the Almirón we remember feels in reach. It will never be 2018 again. At 32 years old, Almirón isn't that player anymore. But the Paraguayan star’s talent is still there. And Martino seems intent on letting Almirón act as the catalyst for everything Atlanta do.

“We have the intention to try to keep finding his best version,” Martino said through a translator at his re-introductory press conference. 

“This year, he has not only an important commitment to Atlanta but also a very important commitment to the Paraguayan national team, something that he’s been searching for for a long time, which is to play in a World Cup.

"We feel that he can be the leader of the team from a soccer perspective. What we want is to somehow surround him in a way that will take some of the responsibilities off the field away from him, and that he be the leader on the field.”

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Deep connection

The best version of Almirón buzzed around the pitch, recovered every 50-50 ball and drove Atlanta United’s attack forward at every available opportunity. The best version of Almirón tallied 49 goal contributions (21g/28a) across two seasons. The best version of Almirón won MLS Cup with a team in just their second year of existence, then earned a big-money move to English Premier League side Newcastle United. Getting anywhere close to that is going to be a heckuva challenge. 

It’s important to remember this, though: Any version of Almirón wouldn’t have landed in Atlanta without Tata. 

“We have this saying in Paraguay … I don’t know how to translate it to English perfectly. Quiero contar contigo,” Almirón told The Players' Tribune in a 2017 piece that’s still cited among the Atlanta United fanbase.

“‘I want to count with you,’ is basically it. But what it means is: I want to rely on you, and I want to do this together. It’s like a vote of confidence. Last winter, someone very special wanted to count with me…

“He told me he had an offer on the table for this new project in the United States, and that if he was going to go, he wanted me to go with him. ‘Quiero contar contigo, Miguel.’”

Back to the beginning

They’ll be counting on each other in drastically different circumstances this season. Instead of an exciting new project, it’s like Martino and Almirón have returned to renovate a childhood home in a state of disrepair. The framework of the house is still there. And if you squint enough, you can see something that makes you feel nostalgic. But the rest… well, it needs work. 

Neither has been willing to say much about what went wrong while they were gone. Or even about what happened last season. You have to imagine it eats at them, though. They’re back here after all. Back in a city they knew nothing about a decade ago. 

It’s easy to understand why. 

When Almirón returned to Atlanta, he returned to a crowd. A few hundred folks braved traffic and airport parking to wait around a few hours in Hartsfield-Jackson’s international terminal and welcome him home. 

Before Martino left at the end of 2018, Atlanta United fans unveiled a tifo of Martino – in statue form – wearing what became the standout feature of his typical matchday outfit: A jacket, taken off, and tied around his neck. The message below the monument to El Tata and Uncle Couture read, “Not all heroes wear capes… but ours does.” 

Of course, it helps that Martino’s return to Atlanta also meant a reunion. 

“I’ve always said that Tata is like a father for me,” Almirón said through a translator earlier this offseason. “Beyond being a great coach, he’s a great person, not just with me but with all my teammates.”

The Tata mindset

If Atlanta United are going to get back to the top of MLS, those teammates (not just Almirón) will have to take major strides forward under Martino. There needs to be a level of buy-in to what Martino is selling that never felt apparent under Deila. 

From a distance, it seems like players are more invested this preseason. Nearly every Atlanta United player who has spoken to the media has mentioned a massive increase in day-to-day intensity under Martino. But there also seems to be an understanding that it’s for a purpose, even if that purpose may not benefit them individually. 

“MLS is very difficult for the defenders, but Tata, he wants to press high,” center back Juan Berrocal said this week.

“It’s more difficult for the defenders, but for the team it is better, I think, because if you get the ball in the opposite field, it’s more easy to attack, to score goals, you know? So I think it’s better for the team.”

Faith in the future

Buy-in doesn’t mean it will all be fixed immediately. Martino himself has said that the roster will take time to be altered: “More than likely, it will take at least a year.” 

But Atlanta fans don’t need this year to be 2018 Part II. Atlanta fans just

need this to feel a little more like 2017, when this whole MLS journey began. With a team that’s clearly building toward something bigger while putting on a show… a show that just so happens to include two familiar cast members, starting with Saturday’s visit to FC Cincinnati to kick off the 2026 campaign (4:45 pm ET | Apple TV, FOX). 

“Tata’s told us that we have a good team with good players,” Almirón said through a translator. “But we have to be more ambitious and have the right attitude because even with the group of players that we have, if we don’t have ambition and attitude to achieve something, to work hard for the club and this shirt, it’s going to be impossible. 

“I see the group doing well, with a lot of motivation to turn around how things went last season.”