César Luis Menotti, Who Coached Argentina to a World Cup, Dies at 85
César Luis Menotti, the charismatic coach who in 1978 led Argentina to its first World Cup title, attaining that milestone within the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires, has died. He was 85.
The Argentine Football Association introduced the demise on Sunday however didn’t give a trigger or specify the place or when he died. Local media studies mentioned that he had been admitted to a clinic in March with extreme anemia. He reportedly underwent surgical procedure for phlebitis in April after which returned house.
Passion for soccer and a pointy capacity to elucidate its mechanics have been Menotti’s hallmark traits as a coach. He was thought of some of the emblematic and influential coaches in Argentine soccer.
Menotti, whose nickname was El Flaco (The Thin One), coached Argentina’s nationwide staff from 1974 to 1983. He was satisfied that the staff didn’t get the popularity it deserved when it received the World Cup as a result of the nation was dominated on the time by a army junta answerable for widespread human rights violations.
His detractors typically recalled a photograph wherein Menotti, after Argentina defeated the Netherlands within the closing, 3-1, shook arms with Jorge Rafael Videla, who was the top of the junta. The victory got here on the top of the so-called soiled struggle, wherein 1000’s of political opponents of the regime have been tortured, killed or “disappeared.”
On the eve of the World Cup, Menotti left a 17-year-old Diego Maradona off the squad — a call that the coach later mentioned had soured their relations for years after Maradona had develop into one of many sport’s largest stars.
Menotti coached Mexico’s nationwide staff in 1991 and 1992. He additionally led Barcelona (1983-84), the place he had Maradona on his squad; Atlético Madrid (1987-88); Uruguay’s Penarol (1990-91); Italy’s Sampdoria (1997); and Mexico’s Tecos (2007), his final teaching job.
For years Menotti typically had a cigarette hanging between his lips, however he principally give up the behavior in 2011 after a three-day hospitalization stemming from his tobacco habit.
He additionally was recognized for sporting his hair lengthy however neat. He mentioned he didn’t depend on hairdressers.
“I cut my own hair,” he mentioned. “I take the scissors, I cut the ends.”
César Luis Menotti was born in 1938 — some sources say Oct. 22, others Nov. 5 — in Rosario, within the northern Santa Fe Province in Argentina.
He started his profession as a participant for Rosario Central (1960-63 and 1967), then performed for Racing Club (1964) and Boca Juniors (1965-66), all Argentine golf equipment.
Menotti performed for the New York Generals (1967) of the National Professional Soccer League after which for Brazil’s Santos (1968) and Italy’s Juventus (1969-70).
At Santos, he performed alongside Pelé, who he by no means hesitated to say was the most effective participant on the planet.
Menotti was a political activist and an affiliate member of the Argentine Communist Party. He was additionally a boxing fan and an admirer of the works of Latin American writers, together with Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges.
“Once I was interviewed by Borges,” Menotti mentioned in one in every of his final interviews, “and when I asked him if it bothered him that I smoked, he told me, ‘What intoxicates me is not the cigarette, but the stupid conversations.’”
“So I asked about everything,” he mentioned, including, “But not about soccer, because I know about soccer!”
The New York Times contributed reporting.
