World football is in mourning for the sad death of Argentine César Luis Menotti, one of the most influential coaches in the history of football, world champion with the albiceleste in the 1978 World Cup, the first appointment would be won on the other side of the Mountain range.
After a very long career as coach, Flaco permanently retired from coaching in 2007, after directing Tecos de México. There, he met Hugo Droguett, one of the few Chileans who knew what it was like to be directed by Menotti.
In a conversation with ADN Radio, the former midfielder recalled that “it was an incredible experience for me, in one of the best campaigns I had in Mexico, I scored 13 goals. It was a short period, but very good.”
“When he took over the team, we were not doing well, but then we started to have a good campaign. In the following preseason, the club sold a forward from the squad, Menotti got very upset about that and ended up leaving,” he added.
In that sense, the former midfielder explained that “I was always very respectful. The only thing I regret is not having gotten more out of it, not having talked to him more. His figure was very imposing, so I was still a little afraid to talk to him more.”
“Although he was imposing, he directed us without a shirt, with bare cotton, that was strange. And outside the court he was always smoking cigars, a must,” he added.
Furthermore, the former University of Chile recalled that “he loved us players who were from South America very much. In fact, in Mexico they did not allow us to travel to spend the holidays in our countries.”
“In a preseason, Menotti stood in front of the group and said: ‘All the South Americans will go to their countries, the holidays will pass and then we will meet again in Mexico.’ We appreciated that and we gave him his hand back on the court,” he concluded.
Flaco Menotti died on May 5 as a result of severe anemia, a condition for which he had already been hospitalized in Buenos Aires on March 30.
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