César Luis Menotti, the charismatic coach who led Argentina to its first world title in 1978, reaching that milestone in the country's capital, Buenos Aires, has died. He was 85 years old.
The Argentine Football Federation announced the death on Sunday, but did not provide a cause or specify where or when he died. Local media reported that he had been admitted to a clinic in March with severe anemia. He reportedly underwent surgery for phlebitis in April and then returned home.
Passion for football and an acute ability to explain its mechanisms were Menotti's distinguishing characteristics as a coach. He was considered one of the most emblematic and influential coaches in Argentine football.
Menotti, nicknamed El Flaco (The Skinny One), coached the Argentina national team from 1974 to 1983. He was convinced that the team did not get the recognition it deserved when it won the World Cup because the country was ruled by a military junta at the time responsible for widespread human rights violations.
His detractors often remembered a photo in which Menotti, after Argentina defeated Holland in the final, 3-1, he shook hands with Jorge Rafael Videla, who was the head of the junta. The victory came at the height of the so-called dirty war, in which thousands of political opponents of the regime were tortured, killed or “disappeared”.
On the eve of the World Cup, Menotti left 17-year-old Diego Maradona out of the team, a decision that the coach said had soured their relationship for years after Maradona had become one of the sport's biggest stars.
Menotti coached the Mexican national team in 1991 and 1992. He also managed Barcelona (1983-84), where he had Maradona in the team; Atletico Madrid (1987-88); Penarol of Uruguay (1990-91); Sampdoria (1997); and the Mexican Tecos (2007), his last coaching job.
For years Menotti often had a cigarette between his lips, but he gave up the habit in 2011 after a three-day hospitalization due to his tobacco addiction.
He was also known for wearing his hair long but neat. He said that he didn't rely on hairdressers.
“I cut my own hair,” he said. “I'll take the scissors, cut the ends.”
He was born in 1938 – some sources say October 22, others November 5 – in Rosario, in the northern province of Santa Fe in Argentina.
He began his career as a player for Rosario Central (1960-63 and 1967), then played for Racing Club (1964) and Boca Juniors (1965-66), all Argentine clubs.
Menotti played for the New York Generals (1967) of the National Professional Soccer League and then for Brazil's Santos (1968) and Italy's Juventus (1969-70).
At Santos he played alongside Pelé, who he never hesitated to call the best player in the world.
Menotti was a political activist and affiliated member of the Argentine Communist Party. He was also a boxing enthusiast and an admirer of the works of Latin American writers, including Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges.
“I was once interviewed by Borges,” Menotti recounted in one of his last interviews, “and when I asked him if it bothered him that I smoked, he told me: 'What intoxicates me is not the cigarette, but stupid conversations.' '”
“So I asked about everything,” he said, adding: “But not about football, because I know about football!”
The New York Times contributed reporting.
