The death of César Luis Menotti moves the football fans of his Rosario native, of the Argentina and of whole world. The former player and coach died this Sunday, May 5, 2024 at the age of 85. Paradoxically, the news was known while the first half of the Argentine Professional Football League cup final was being played, in which Students of La Plata. The news quickly shocked fans who this rainy Sunday went to see their teams, not only in the first division, but also in the Ascenso and in all the fields a minute of silence was held in his memory, which was broken by a loud applause. of respect and love for a hero of Argentine football.
Owner of an amazing ability to understand the game from his playing days, he was a key character in the history and organization of the National Soccer Team, and in the world titles of 1978, 1979 and 2022.
“Flaco” began his sports career in minor clubs in Santa Fe such as Unión América de Fisherton and Argentino de Marcos Juárez. He went through the Carcarañense League and went to try out for Vélez Sarsfield but was rejected and ended up in Rosario Central, where he debuted in the first team in 1960 as a center forward, what we call center forward today. After four seasons, he went to Racing Club for two years and then to Boca, where he was champion in 1965. But after missing a penalty against Real Madrid in the Mohamed Cup, in Morocco, he continued his career in the United States and closed his times as a footballer in Brazil, where he was also champion with Santos, in 1968 and played alongside Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé.
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He retired as a footballer in 1970 and in the second half of the year, he made his debut as a coach at Newell’s Old Boys, in his hometown, after being a field assistant to his friend Miguel Antonio ‘el Gitano’ Juárez. In 1971 he became the technical director of Huracán, where two years later he would lead the club to win its first professional title, the Metropolitano in 1973. That was a team remembered for its great play, as one of the best in the history of football. Argentinian. A tanguero at heart, Menotti said that “My dream was to make a lovable team, like Osvaldo Pugliese’s orchestra,” and boy did he achieve it.
After his consecration with the club from the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Parque Patricios, it was time for the national team. But his management was not just another, in the disordered Argentine football of before, then and now. Menotti was personally in charge of imposing the idea that the national team should be a priority for the AFA and for the clubs. With the 1978 Soccer World Cup in his sights, the coach convinced everyone that everyone had to work from their place to be able to take Argentina to the top of world soccer.
And not only did he achieve it, but a year later, he took charge of the youth team that played in the World Cup in Japan. Although the selection of players was made by Don Ernesto Duchini, already then a legend in Argentine football as a talent detector and trainer, in the World Cup held in Tokyo, Menotti directed and the Argentine team also won the title. Diego Armando Maradona used to remember that that was the best team he was part of in his entire life.
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That, at 40 years old, was the peak of his career. You cannot be champion every day, nor maintain the best results in all the teams you manage. After a regular World Cup in Spain, with Maradona already in the senior team, Menotti returned to direct clubs. In Barcelona, he won three more titles, the Copa del Rey, the League Cup and the Spanish Super Cup.
Later he coached Independiente, Boca Juniors, River Plate and Rosario Central, among other teams, on several occasions. He also led the Mexican team, with good results in general and, naturally, good football but without being able to become champion again. Faithful to his didactic spirit, he was a sports commentator, wrote countless journalistic articles and published several books to explain his playing philosophy, which could be summarized in good play, respect for the ball, for the opponent and for the team. show.
Once, on this path of respect, he had Carlos Salvador Bilardo, his great public opponent, as his subordinate in a short-lived stint on América TV, with whom, indirectly, they always contrasted their styles. When asked both by this chronicler, only Menotti answered parsimoniously: “I don’t interfere with anyone’s work.” He stood up, responded and respected. Faithful to his style.
Finally, as the years went by, and with a retirement of glory assured, he accepted the call of Claudio Tapia to be the Director of the Argentine Football Association national teams, where he was part of the triumph of the misnamed Scalonetaled by Lionel Scaloni from the bench and by Lionel Messi and Angel Di María on the field, in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the best end to a long and beautiful career in, as he liked to say, “old and beloved Argentine football ”.
The 1978 World Cup
Menotti technically commanded a team with big names, on which he imposed his stamp. Fillol, Passarella, Tarantini, Ardiles, Gallego, Kempes, Luque and Bertoni, among others, were the pillars of the team that settled an old debt of Argentine football: becoming World Champion. It was “the” world cup for Argentina, which after 48 years of competing in the world cup, could organize it for the first time. The “skinny” convinced everyone that it was a great opportunity for local football and made it a priority for everyone. With a good performance and some setbacks, the Argentine team reached the penultimate match of the second phase with the obligation to beat Peru 4 to 0 to secure its place in the final. So many decades later, it is still being discussed whether or not the 6-0 with which Menotti’s team sealed its passport to face Holland (Today, the Netherlands) on a cloudy Sunday, June 25, 1978, was legitimate.
Tamcoo was easy that match, like the road to the final. They started winning with a goal from Kempes, but Holland not only tied it but with moments left before the end of the 90 minutes of regulation, they hit the post with a shot. In the extra period, the albiceleste overcame the oranges and made a country subjugated by the worst civil-military dictatorship it has suffered in its entire history, celebrate and take to the streets. A celebration questioned by what was happening in the country, but genuine for many generations of soccer fans who had the greatest collective joy that soccer could give them. The skinny guy, with his coaching staff, had a pending promise: to take the Olympic lap in the Obelisk. The celebrations in the streets lasted until the early hours of Monday the 26th, but around 5 in the morning, when there were still some stragglers celebrating, he put on his shorts and indulged in his life.
The war of Menotti and Bilardo
The rift in Argentine football between menottistas and bilardistas will never be resolved. On the one hand, the menottistas, defenders of a style of play that has to do with good ball handling, always thinking about the opponent’s goal, attacking and putting on a show. On the other, an obsessive about tactics, about controlling the details, and about achieving the result in any way.
The first argue that this is how beauty and art was achieved in football, that thanks to good play, results and beautiful games are achieved. On the other hand, titles are obtained. The truth is that Menotti never neglected tactics, training or work, which seem to be the exclusive property of his opponent. On the other hand, they talk about championships and runners-up. But neither on one hand are they so lyrical and tied to inspiration, nor on the other can we speak of full effectiveness.
The truth is that they once had a kind and cordial treatment. It was when they met for the transition between one management of the national team and another, brought together by a mutual friend: Ricardo Saporiti and of which an old photograph is preserved with Hugo Pena as a circumstantial witness of that meeting. Menotti gave a folder with information to Bilardo. But he barely started managing “Narigón”, “Flaco” didn’t like something and didn’t fall. Menotti complained that on the first tour of Bilardo’s national team, the players met on the plane, played the day after arriving and thus the prestige of the National Team was being given away. Bilardo exploded and responded with thick ammunition. End of the relationship and beginning of a war that had a thousand battles.
We Menottistas will say that in the other final, the one between Independiente de Menotti and Boca de Bilardo, a loss on November 3, 1996 in the Bombonera, the Avellaneda reds scored a goal with a header from a corner (like the two of Germany in the 1986 final, who did not let the doctor celebrate) and beat him 1 to 0. The bilardistas, that Menotti’s team made defensive changes and delayed the game until they won.
Menotti, Clarín columnist, surrendered at the feet of Bilardo’s team, when those led by Narigón from the bench and Maradona from the green grass, consecrated themselves in México 86. “Argentina won well. Argentina won because it plays well at football and this is the most important thing of all,” wrote Flaco in a note titled “He had personality and played football well.” And he defended Bilardo’s position. “I hope this world championship fulfills the functions that the champions have and that once and for all we give a definitive answer to Argentine football, taking advantage of everything that it must have meant to Argentina, all the joy that this football gives and, then “Let’s not let it be lost, as it was lost in ’78, in selfish struggles and that this victory is exclusive to the players and the coach,” he concluded.
Menotti and Lionel Scaloni
“When Claudio Tapia told me about Lionel Scaloni, I went to the meeting scared, because I didn’t know him,” Menotti revealed in an interview he gave to Radio Villa Trinidad. But quick on reflexes and respectful of the work, he assured, “I asked Tapia to leave it to Scaloni in the National Team.” And the relationship between Menotti and Scaloni was always more than cordial. The selection director came to give his opinion, to accompany him in the task and without interfering in a position that he knew very well. The results and the game are visible.
With the departure of Menotti, one of the most faithful representatives and defenders of the old and beloved Argentine football leaves. He was one of the great teams of the 40s and 50s, the Carasucias, the South American champions, those who beat England in 1953 and so many other glories. But Menotti made Argentine football transcend beyond our ego and that of “moral champions.” Menotti made the captain of the Argentine national team lift the World Cup for the first time in history and that will remain in the collective memory of soccer fans for a lifetime. Have a good trip, Caesar!
2024-05-05 22:43:00
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