Marcelo Bielsa has resigned as Chile’s national team coach, ending a three-month saga over his future.

Bielsa stepped down at a news conference despite his overwhelming popularity in Chile and attempts by new Chilean football association president Sergio Jadue to persuade him to stay.

The 55-year-old Bielsa led Chile to its most successful World Cup in almost 50 years last year.

He first announced his plans to resign three months ago when Jorge Segovia was elected president of the Chilean FA, saying he could not have a working relationship with the Spanish businessman.

Segovia’s election was eventually annulled, and Jadue - since taking over last month - said he wanted to keep the popular Argentine.

Bielsa, his voice cracking as he spoke, said he was leaving because he did not see eye-to-eye with Jadue and accused him of feeding false information to local reporters.

“Sergio Jadue gave information to the press that was not true,” Bielsa said, reading from a statement. He said Jadue tried to “fool the news media to get the football public to turn against me.”

“Another reason I am resigning is because it was impossible to know who was exercising authority,” Bielsa added. “It was never clear if the power was with the president of the Chilean FA, the big Chilean clubs or all 32 clubs.”

Bielsa – known as “El Loco” (The Crazy One) – is an intense coach who transformed Chile into a younger, attacking team. In 3½ years in the job, he got Chile to the second round of last year’s World Cup before losing to Brazil. It was Chile’s first World Cup appearance since 1998 and its best finish since Chile hosted the event in 1962.

Three Argentines have surfaced quickly as candidates for the job – former Boca Juniors coach Claudio Borghi, former Argentina national team coach Jose Pekerman and Alejandro Sabella who resigned on Thursday at the coach of Argentine club Estudiantes.