The Argentine Football Association reported this Sunday the death of César Luis Menotti. The former DT I was 85 years old and he was hospitalized since the beginning of April by a picture of “severe anemia.”
The skinnyas it was popularly known, He was the technical director who won the first World Cup in 1978 with the Argentine National Team.which marked a before and after with its long-term work, in times of institutional instability in the country and in the AFA itself. He would repeat the consecration in 1979, in Japan, with a youth team captained by Diego Armando Maradona (which he should have left out of the Major League), which the coach himself considered the best team he managed.
The historic coach He had been admitted to the ward of the Agote de Recoleta Sanatorium (CABA) due to severe anemia. which was complicated by thrombophlebitis: He was conscious and in a common room, but he was very weak and for that reason his discharge was postponed until April 10. “He is fine, lucid, and eager to go home,” they let it be known.at that moment, from his surroundings.
Menotti used to avoid visiting doctors until the last minute. and that caused him to end up hospitalized because his anemia was significant. In August of last year he had suffered an accident when he fell at his house, which caused internal bleeding, and he had also delayed approaching a guard. When he did, he had to stay hospitalized for several days to be cured and discharged.
This last time, something similar happened: The director of the AFA National Teams came with some symptoms and took a while to seek assistance. However, after being stabilized through a series of blood transfusions, the former trainer was discharged to continue rehabilitation at home. Finally, This Sunday the news of his death was confirmed.
More than a coach, a legend
Menotti was born on October 22, 1938, in Rosario, but on his ID he appears as that this happened on November 5, because his father took a while to register him.
An only son, his father Antonio had fought with the best boxers in Rosario, who died young, at 51, from smoking. A Peronist in his youth, his house was shot at twice due to internal party disputes. “We were mentally prepared that when my old man turned on the light, we would lie on the floor as a precaution,” he said.
He took refuge in Agustín’s house (communist delegate of La Fraternidad) and Chacho Rena, his friends from the Fisherton neighborhood. “They took care of me, they forced me to take my classes because I stopped going to school; I styled my hair like Gardel so they would let me enter places for adults, I hung out with older people. The Rena and boxing saved me, because I heard stories of people who died because of chupi and that he painted for crack, and I realized that I had to take care of myself.”he recalled.
His beginnings as a player
It debuted in 1960 in Rosario Central with only six games in reserve and played there four years until He moved to Racing in 1964 and to Boca in 1965. Two years later he emigrated to the United States to play for The New York Generals, and In 1968 he traveled to Brazil to play for Pelé’s Santos and was São Paulo champion of that year. In the middle He was part of the Argentine National Team. In 1970 he moved to Juventus de São Paulo, where he retired As a player. And his legend began as a coach.
El Flaco was one of the most important men in the history of Argentine football. Not only for the achievements, but for having left a school to follow that endures over time with hundreds of disciples: Menottism. “You can stop running, stop playing for long minutes… The only thing you can’t do is stop thinking”was one of its main mottos.
Football from the other side of the line
In 1972 he was summoned to direct Huracán and he met the promising Miguel Brindisi and Carlos Babington; veterans like Jorge Carrascosa, Alfio Basile and Roque Avallay; the talented Omar Larrosa and especially a very skilled right forward: the unforgettable René Houseman.
With the Globe Not only won the 1973 Metropolitano but He displayed brilliant football that projected him to the National Team after the failure in the 1974 World Cup in Germany.
Glory with the selected one
After the death of Perón and the coup of 1976, He had problems with the dictatorship and was on the verge of resigning as coach of Argentina. When the AFA was directed by Alfredo Cantilo and the leaders David Bracutto and Paulino Niembro (those who brought Flaco to the National Team) had left, the new football leader told him: “Wait, let’s give ourselves some time.”
Later, in 1979, Julio Grondona told him when he took office that he could not be president of the AFA if Menotti was not the technical director. “You and I are going to change the history of Argentine soccer,” the late leader told him.
“I was active in the PC, I had my doubtsI met with many people who told me that it was much more worth fighting it from the inside than from the outside,” he once stated and remarked: “I met many tortured Peronist leaders, Since the electric prod was used, I couldn’t be stupid. What I never imagined was the other, that guys would throw them out of the planes, the 30,000 missing.”
He gave the note in the run-up to the ’78 World Cup when from a first list of 25 players left out a 17-year-old Maradonaas well as Humberto Bravo and Víctor Bottaniz. “I don’t regret it because we were champions. It could have been a mistakeYes, but at that moment I did what I thought had to be done, and “It was to take care of him, more than anything,” commented in an extensive interview with The graphicand clarified: “I was in love with Diego’s game, but what do I know… I saw him so small, so young. I felt like I had to choose between big guys. I know that Diego never forgave me for that.”
With the first star obtained, Menotti was already a personality, with fans and detractors. With Maradona in a state of grace he would win the U-20 World Cup in Japan a year laterwith a team that also included Juan SimónOsvaldo Rinaldi, Juan Barbas, Ramón Díaz and Gabriel Calderón, among others. And he assured that the goal that most shouted was that of Díaz from La Rioja against the USSR in the final, “because of identification with the team and its game.”
He also wrote two books, How we won the World Cupwhere he told in detail the mechanisms used for the great conquest of 1978, Soccer-Game, Sport and Profession (1980).
The dispute with Bilardo
The World Cup in Spain was a setback: the Argentine concentration in Alicante experienced the media context of the Falkland Islands war. According to Menotti, the saddest football day of his life was when the team lost 2-1 to Italy in the second round.
At the end of his cycle at the head of the National Team, the one who took over was Carlos Bilardo, with whom he was involved in a clash of styles. And over the years he said that he had “a personal dispute and some got into that fight without any respect for those ideas. I would never fight with a guy because he does libero and stopper. “It was magnified because each one won a World Cup, but it was a debate that wasn’t worth five cents.”
Menotti also directed Boca in two periods, he had three steps Independent (plus one as a manager) and worked in the Atlético Madrid, River, Peñarol, Rosario Central, the SampdoriaBesides of Puebla and Tecos of Mexicountil his retirement in 2007.
The consulting man at AFA
In recent times he dedicated himself to being a man of decision and permanent consultation in the management of the national teams. It was key to sustain which to Priori it sounded risky: Lionel Scaloni as coach in the Major Leaguesomeone who without previous experience went from interim to champion of America and the world. Another bean in your favor.
El Flaco last appeared publicly on March 13 in an interview on radio Splendid, where He spared no praise for Angel Di María.
“He is one of the best footballers in the history of Argentine football. For me, Di María is of such importance in our history that it would hurt me a lot if he did not enjoy recognition for everything he did. He never sold smoke. I have great appreciation for him. And I have no relationship with him,” said the man who will forever leave a deep mark on Argentine sports.
