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November 7, 2026

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Diego Simeone
Sports

Simeone equals LaLiga’s all-time wins record as Atlético’s seventh straight victory takes them top — for a few hours

Faizan Altaf

Diego Simeone has spent almost 15 years turning Atlético Madrid into the team nobody in Spain enjoys playing. On Saturday, 31 October 2026, he reached a milestone that puts him alongside the greatest name in the club’s history — and for a few hours, his team sat on top of LaLiga.

Atlético beat Levante 2-0 away in Valencia, with goals from Alejandro Grimaldo and Giuliano Simeone, the coach’s son. It was their seventh league win in a row and took them to 28 points from 11 games, one point clear of Barcelona. Barcelona, however, had a game still to play that evening, and they answered in style.

The win was Simeone’s 344th in LaLiga. That drew him level with Luis Aragonés, the legendary coach who held the record for the most wins in the history of Spain’s top division. Simeone needed 191 fewer matches to get there — and every one of his 344 wins has come with the same club.

At a glance

What happened: Atlético Madrid beat Levante 2-0 on 31 October 2026, their seventh straight LaLiga win, and Diego Simeone equalled Luis Aragonés’s record of 344 LaLiga wins as a manager.

Why it matters: Simeone reached the record in 565 matches, 191 fewer than Aragonés needed, and he did it all with one club. Atlético are now genuine title contenders, two points behind Barcelona after 11 games.

What happens next: Atlético host Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, 3 November, then welcome Barcelona to the Metropolitano next weekend — a win there would give Simeone the record outright.

How the match was won

The game began with a minute’s silence in memory of the 69 victims of the train crash in the province of Toledo that shook Spain earlier in the week. Then Atlético got down to winning a football match in the way they have made their own: patiently, physically, and without giving their opponents much room to breathe.

Levante had the first real chance. Dani Requena forced goalkeeper Jan Oblak into an impressive early save. Atlético thought they had gone ahead when Morten Hjulmand finished after being slipped in by Álex Baena, but a video review showed the Dane was offside and the goal was ruled out.

The breakthrough came in the 36th minute, and Baena was involved again. His pass was poorly defended by Levante, the ball bobbled through to Grimaldo, and the left-back lashed it high into the net at the near post.

Levante nearly hit back at the start of the second half, when Lee Kang-in struck the crossbar. But Atlético doubled their lead in the 62nd minute. Baena, the visitors’ main creative outlet all afternoon, played the through ball, and Giuliano Simeone prodded home. The goal carried an extra layer of meaning: the scorer is the coach’s son, finishing a move in a match that would hand his father a piece of history.

Oblak still had work to do. He saved superbly from Karl Etta Eyong to stop Levante fighting their way back into the game, and that was effectively the end of the contest. Nigeria forward Ademola Lookman came on as a substitute in the 76th minute, replacing Baena, but both goals were already scored and Atlético saw the game out with the calm of a team that has done this many times before.

It was Atlético’s sixth clean sheet in 11 league games this season, and the third in a row in the league. The defence, led by Oblak, has conceded only eight goals in those 11 matches.

A record 15 years in the making

The numbers behind Simeone’s record are striking. According to the statisticians at Opta, he has now won 344 of the 565 LaLiga matches he has managed. Another 123 ended in draws, and his teams lost 98. Aragonés also won 344 league matches in his coaching career, but he needed 756 matches to reach that total.

That gap of 191 matches is the clearest measure of what Simeone has done. He has won more than six out of every ten league games he has managed. Aragonés, for all his greatness, won fewer than half of his.

There is another difference that matters. All 344 of Simeone’s wins have come with Atlético Madrid. Aragonés won his across a long career with several clubs, including four separate spells in charge of Atlético. Simeone’s record is therefore not only a LaLiga record. It is a record built entirely in one dugout, with one club, over one extraordinary reign.

Atlético themselves put the achievement in a wider context. In announcing the milestone, the club said Simeone has now won 479 matches in 813 official games in charge across all competitions, and has lifted eight trophies as Atlético coach, compared with six won by Aragonés.

Simeone himself played down the personal side of it. “I don’t feel it much as mine, but it belongs to my players, everyone who has been with me for so many years,” he told the broadcaster Movistar after the match. “I’m very happy with the team’s work,” he added. “We’re very far from the end of the season… we’ll keep going game by game.”

That last line is pure Simeone. “Game by game” — partido a partido — has been his public motto for more than a decade, a refusal to talk about titles in October and a way of keeping his players focused on the next 90 minutes.

Who was Luis Aragonés?

To understand why this record matters so much in Spain, it helps to know who Luis Aragonés was. For Atlético supporters, he is not just a former coach. He is the defining figure of the club’s modern history, a man who served Atlético as a player and as a coach across five decades.

Aragonés played for Atlético in the 1960s and 1970s, winning league titles and becoming one of the club’s great goalscorers from midfield. As a coach, he led Atlético in four different spells and won six trophies with them, including the league title in 1977. He also coached other Spanish clubs, and in 2008 he led the Spanish national team to victory at the European Championship, the triumph that began Spain’s golden era of international football. He died in 2014, aged 75.

His record of 344 league wins stood as a mark of a whole career — decades of management, hundreds of matches, several clubs. That Simeone has matched it in 15 years with one club says something about both men.

Simeone’s Atlético: the transformation

When Simeone took over Atlético on 23 December 2011, the club were in trouble. They sat ninth in LaLiga, 15 points behind leaders Real Madrid, and had just been knocked out of the Copa del Rey in the round of 32. Within five months, he had won the Europa League, beating Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in the final, and then the UEFA Super Cup, beating Chelsea 4-1.

What followed was the most successful period in the club’s history. Atlético won LaLiga in 2013-14, breaking the Barcelona-Real Madrid hold on the title, and won it again in 2020-21. They won the Copa del Rey in 2012-13, the Spanish Super Cup in 2014, a second Europa League in 2017-18, and a second UEFA Super Cup in 2018. That is eight trophies in total.

Twice, in 2014 and 2016, Simeone took Atlético to the final of the Champions League, the biggest prize in European club football. Twice they lost to their city rivals, Real Madrid — the first time after Sergio Ramos scored a 93rd-minute equaliser in Lisbon, with Real winning 4-1 after extra time. The Champions League is the one trophy that has stayed out of Simeone’s reach.

He has also changed what Atlético are. Before him, they were a talented but chaotic club, capable of brilliance and collapse in the same month. Under him, they became the third force in Spanish football: organised, hard to beat, and feared in Europe. He has now been in charge for almost 15 years, the longest continuous reign of any manager at a club in Europe’s major leagues, and in May 2026 he passed 1,000 matches as a professional manager, 795 of them with Atlético.

That longevity is rare in modern football, where managers are often sacked after a bad month. Simeone’s contract runs until 2027, and he has survived poor runs before — including five years without a trophy since that second league title in 2021. This season, so far, is his answer.

The title race: Barcelona hit back

Atlético’s win put them provisionally top of LaLiga on Saturday afternoon, one point ahead of Barcelona. The champions had lost their first league match of the season the previous weekend, against Real Madrid in El Clásico, and they hosted Alavés on Saturday evening knowing that anything less than a win would leave them behind Atlético.

They responded with a 6-1 thrashing. Raphinha scored twice, Fermín López added one, and Lamine Yamal scored twice. Substitute Anthony Gordon made it 6-0 before former Real Madrid striker Mariano Díaz scored a late consolation for Alavés.

The result restored Barcelona’s two-point lead at the top. After 11 rounds, Barcelona have 30 points and Atlético have 28. Real Madrid, who were third when Atlético’s match finished, were due to visit Racing Santander on Sunday.

The table, in other words, is tight. Two points separate the top two after 11 games, and the next round brings them face to face. Atlético host Barcelona at the Metropolitano next weekend, and that match now carries an extra storyline: a win for the home side would not only put them top, it would give Simeone his 345th LaLiga victory and sole ownership of the all-time record — against the champions, at home, in front of his own supporters.

Why this run is different

Atlético’s start to the season is their best in 13 years. After ten matches, they had 25 points from eight wins, a draw and a single defeat, equalling their best league start since the 2014-15 season. The club pointed out that they had one point more at the same stage than in 2020-21, the season they last won the title.

The run has been built on the oldest Simeone virtue: defending. Atlético have scored 22 goals in 11 league games, which is respectable rather than spectacular. But they have conceded only eight, and Oblak has kept six clean sheets. In a league where Barcelona score freely and Real Madrid have more individual star power, Atlético’s argument is that they are the hardest team to score against.

The seven-match winning run began after the season’s only real setback, a 3-0 defeat at Athletic Club on 5 September. Since then, Atlético have beaten Real Sociedad 3-0, Osasuna 4-0, Real Madrid 2-1, Alavés 2-1, Espanyol 1-0, Deportivo La Coruña 1-0 and now Levante 2-0. It is their best run of league wins since January 2025, when they won eight in a row, and they are unbeaten in nine matches in all competitions.

In the Champions League, they lost 2-1 at Liverpool in September, but have since beaten Manchester United 2-0 at home and drawn 1-1 away at Stuttgart. The league form, however, has been relentless since that September defeat, and the team now looks like one that believes it can win the title.

What happens next

The schedule does not ease up. Atlético host Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, 3 November, a match that will test whether the domestic form travels into Europe. Then comes the Barcelona game at the Metropolitano next weekend — the biggest league match of the season so far, and the one in which Simeone can make the record his own.

For Levante, the defeat leaves them on 10 points and in 16th place, still looking over their shoulders at the relegation zone. They had their moments on Saturday, and on another day Requena’s early chance or Lee Kang-in’s crossbar might have changed the story. But against this Atlético side, moments are rarely enough.

For Simeone, the record is already his in all but name. One more win and nobody in the history of LaLiga will have won more matches as a coach.

Frequently asked questions

How many LaLiga wins does Diego Simeone have now?

344, after the 2-0 win at Levante on 31 October 2026. That draws him level with Luis Aragonés for the most wins by a manager in LaLiga history. Simeone reached the total in 565 matches, with 123 draws and 98 defeats.

How many matches did Luis Aragonés need to win 344 games?

756 matches. Aragonés won his 344 league games across a long coaching career with several clubs, while all of Simeone’s 344 wins have come with Atlético Madrid.

Who scored in Atlético’s 2-0 win at Levante?

Alejandro Grimaldo opened the scoring in the 36th minute, and Giuliano Simeone, the coach’s son, added the second in the 62nd minute after being played in by Álex Baena. Jan Oblak kept a clean sheet for Atlético.

Where do Atlético stand in the LaLiga table?

After 11 rounds, Atlético are second with 28 points. Barcelona lead with 30 points after beating Alavés 6-1 on Saturday evening, a few hours after Atlético had briefly moved top. Real Madrid were third when the weekend’s matches began.

When can Simeone break the record?

As early as the next LaLiga round. Atlético host Barcelona at the Metropolitano next weekend, and a win there would be his 345th LaLiga victory and give him the record outright. Before that, Atlético host Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, 3 November.

How many trophies has Simeone won with Atlético?

Eight: two LaLiga titles (2013-14 and 2020-21), one Copa del Rey, one Spanish Super Cup, two Europa League titles and two UEFA Super Cups. He has also reached two Champions League finals, in 2014 and 2016, losing both to Real Madrid.

Conclusion

Records in football usually belong to players — the goalscorers, the appearance-makers, the ones whose names fill the record books. This one belongs to a coach, and to a way of doing things: the same club, the same ideas, repeated week after week for almost 15 years.

Simeone’s 344th LaLiga win was not a spectacular match. It was a 2-0 away win built on a solid defence, a goal from a full-back, a goal from his son, and a goalkeeper making the saves that needed making. That is, in many ways, the point. Atlético under Simeone do not win by accident. They win by being organised, stubborn and hard to beat — and on Saturday, that was enough to put them level with Luis Aragonés, the greatest figure in the club’s history.

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.

Sources

Faizan Altaf

Faizan Altaf is the founder and author of findivoza.com, a news blog covering world, Pakistan, business, technology, health and sport in plain English. He writes for general readers who want clear, trustworthy news without jargon. His work focuses on explaining what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next.

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