César Luis Menotti

César Luis Menotti ( born November 5, 1938 in Rosario ) is a former Argentine football player and coach. He led the Argentine national team at the 1978 World Cup in their own country to the title. In his home country he is called El Flaco ( " drought ").

Playing career

The son of a doctor from Rosario grew up in the district Fisherton and began playing football at the local club Unión América. From 1960, he played for the first division Rosario Central; his debut in the Argentine Primera División he gave on July 3, 1960 in a 3-1 win over Boca Juniors. Four seasons long he worked for the team from his hometown, before he went for a season for Racing Club Avellaneda after. In 1965 he moved to Boca Juniors. The Capital Team of usable in the storm or in the attacking midfield player won the championship in his first season. After 1967 he played in the U.S. and in Brazil, before he became coach in 1970.

Coaching career

By coach stations at Newell 's Old Boys in Rosario and CA Huracán, 1973 Argentine champion, Menotti 1974 coach of the Argentine national team. This had been tortured at the World Cup 1974 in Germany through the preliminary round and was in the second final round defeated by Brazil and the Netherlands clearly referenced in their place ( 0:4 ). For the World Cup at home you needed a sense of achievement and consequently a rebuild. Menotti was faced with great difficulties: the major clubs of Buenos Aires, Boca Juniors and River Plate, refused to leave their 1975 players for the national team, so Menotti had to resort to other clubs. He formed a team mainly made ​​up of players who came from the provinces of Santa Fe and Córdoba Luis Galván, Osvaldo Ardiles, Américo Gallego, Mario Kempes and Leopoldo Luque. Hugo Gatti, Daniel killer and his brother Mario, Miguel Oviedo, and Daniel Valencia remained in the national team. Menotti discovered the talent of Houseman and the defensive Daniel Passarella, who later became captain of the national team. Before the World Cup, he had his squad limited to 22 men and renounced Humberto Rafael Bravo, Víctor Bottaniz and the 17 -year-old giant talent Diego Maradona.

Argentina won the World Cup, finally, with the 0:6 defeat of the Peruvians against the Argentines that this enabled the finals, represents one of the most controversial games in football history. 1979 Menotti watched the World Junior Championship, which Argentina won thanks to the overwhelming Diego Maradona. Maradona should be the centerpiece of the national team, wanted to defend the title with the Menotti 1982. In 1980 Argentina participated in the Mundialito in Uruguay. There they defeated European champion Germany and played draw against the Brazilians. Because of the goal difference is retired undefeated.

In the 1982 World Cup in Spain Menotti came up with the same defensive line as 1978. He had renewed with Maradona, Juan Barbas, Ramon Diaz and Jorge Valdano The offensive. The tournament was unfortunate for the Argentines. The tournament and the tournament preparation was overshadowed by the Falklands War, in which 655 Argentines lost their lives. On 13 June the World Cup began on June 14 and signed the Instrument of Surrender Argentina. The team Menotti reached the second final round, where they met the top favorites from Brazil and the eventual champions Italy. Argentina lost both games. Italy put the man-marker Claudio Gentile on Maradona, who took it with both legal and illegal means from the game. Against the superior Brazilians refused the referee Maradona a penalty and this occurred a Brazilian throughout the game unnerved in the abdomen and was sent off.

A year later came back Menotti by the Office of National Trainers. From 1983 to 1991 he worked at various clubs in South America and in Europe. So Menotti won with FC Barcelona in the Copa del Rey (1983 ), the Spanish League Cup (1983) and the Spanish Super Cup (1984). Subsequently, he served one and a half years as coach of the Mexican national team. After another club stations, he returned in 2002 as a coach for his hometown club Rosario Central back. Between August 2006 and January 2008 Menotti was again active in Mexico; the first division side UAG Tecos in Guadalajara, he resigned on 7 January 2008.

Personality

Menotti propagates a philosophy of football left, which is based not only on the victory, but also of beauty and aesthetics. Menotti: " In football, the left, we do not play solely to win, but to be better, to feel joy, to experience a festival to grow as human beings. "

1978 Menotti refused the then president of the military government of Argentina, General Jorge Rafael Videla, after winning the title demonstratively handshake. In his distancing of the military junta, which had exploited for propaganda purposes the World Cup, he went even further by investing in a television interview, winning the title with the words "My players have the dictatorship of the tactics and the terror of the systems defeated " described. On the other hand, the junta had probably paved the way to the finals by the team from Peru was bribed in the second round - a task for which, among other things, the British journalist Simon Kuper has gathered evidence.

César Luis Menotti in 2009 was awarded for his commitment and social responsibility the Walther- Bense Mann Prize of the German Academy for football culture.

A quote from Bernd Schuster describes his way of working. "Take César Louis Menotti, a top trainer, but if he has talked to a player, he has asked if there wife and children doing well Otherwise, he sat on the bench and smoked 50 cigarettes. "

References

Publications

• Cómo la Copa del Mundo ganamos. Buenos Aires in 1978.
• Fútbol, juego, deporte y profesión. Buenos Aires in 1980.
• Fútbol sin Trampa. Barcelona 1986.