 He subsequently returned to Alumni and Belgrano, before taking over CA Aprendices Casildenses in 1999; with the latter side, he won two consecutive Liga Casildense titles.Sampaoli returned to a third stint with Alumni in 2001, after a short stint back at Argentino de Rosario in the previous year.Despite reaching the finals of the Liga Casildense, he lost it to former side Aprendices.