César Luis Menotti, the charismatic coach who led Argentina to its first world championship title in 1978, has died, the Argentine Football Federation announced on Sunday. He was 85 years old.
“Goodbye, dear Flaco!” » adds the association’s press release, using Menotti’s nickname which means “the thin one”.
The association did not give a cause of death. Local media reported that Menotti was admitted to a clinic in March with severe anemia. He was reportedly operated on for phlebitis in April and then returned home.
Passion for football and a great ability to explain its mechanics were Menotti’s distinctive characteristics as a coach, and he was considered one of the most iconic and influential coaches in Argentine football.
Menotti was a political activist and affiliated member of the Argentine Communist Party, a boxing fan, and an admirer of the works of Latin American writers Mario Benedetti, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Sábato, and Joan Manuel Serrat, among others.
“Once I was interviewed by Borges, and when I asked him if it bothered him that I smoked, he replied: ‘What intoxicates me is not cigarettes, but conversations stupid,'” Menotti recalled in one of his last interviews.
“So, I asked questions about everything… but not about football, because I know football!” he added.
He began his career as a player for Rosario Central (1960-1963 and 1967), then joined Racing Club (1964) and Boca Juniors (1965-1966), all Argentine clubs. Menotti played for the New York Generals in the United States (1967), followed by Brazilian Santos (1968) and Italian Juventus (1969-1970).
At Santos, he played alongside Pelé, whom he never hesitated to call the best player among the legends.
Menotti coached the Argentina national team between 1974 and 1983. He was convinced that the team did not get the recognition they deserved when they won the World Cup in 1978 because the country was led by a military junta responsible for widespread human rights violations. His detractors often remembered a photo in which Menotti, after winning the World Cup, shook hands with Jorge Rafael Videla, head of the military junta.
On the eve of the World Cup, Menotti left 17-year-old Maradona out of the squad – a decision the coach said soured their relationship for years.
Menotti coached the Mexican national team in 1991-92. He also managed Barcelona (1983-1984), where he had Maradona in his team; Atlético Madrid (1987-88); Penarol of Uruguay (1990-91); Italian Sampdoria (1997) and Mexican Tecos (2007) — his last coaching position.
For years, Menotti often had a cigarette between his lips, but he mostly gave up the habit in 2011 after a three-day hospitalization due to his tobacco addiction.
He was also known for wearing long but neat hair. He said he didn’t rely on hairdressers. “I cut my hair myself. I take the scissors, I cut the ends.
Menotti started leaving his hair long in the early 1970s. “One day I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to cut my hair until we lose.’ And we went 10 games unbeaten, so it all started as a joke,” he said.
In his later years, Menotti said he did not fear death. “That’s the only thing I know for sure.” I don’t know anyone who hasn’t died at some point,” he said in 2014.
