Daniel Passarella

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Daniel Passarella
Personal information
Full name	Daniel Alberto Passarella
Date of birth	May 25, 1953 (age 53)
Place of birth	Chacabuco, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
Nickname	"El Gran Capitán", "Kaiser"
Position	Defender
Club information
Current club	River Plate (manager)
Youth clubs
????-1971	Argentinos Juniors
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1971-1973 1974-1982 1982-1986 1986-1988 1989	Sarmiento River Plate Fiorentina Inter Milan River Plate Total	??(??) 226(90) 153(26) 44(9) 32(9) 455(134)
National team**
1976-1986	Argentina	70 (22)
Teams managed
1989-1994 1994-1998 1999-2001 2001 2002-2004 2005 2006-	River Plate Argentina Uruguay Parma Monterrey Corinthians River Plate
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21 October 2005. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 21 October 2005.

Daniel Alberto Passarella (born May 25, 1953 in Chacabuco, Buenos Aires province) is a former Argentine football centre back and former manager of the Argentine and Uruguayan national football teams.

Contents 1 Club playing career 2 National team playing career 3 Coaching career 4 Honours 4.1 As Player 4.2 As Manager 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Club playing career

Passarella started his career at Sarmiento of Junin, Buenos Aires province. From there he joined River Plate, then Fiorentina of Italy and briefly, Inter Milan. After his successful spell in Serie A, he returned to River Plate, where he played until his retirement.

He was called "El Gran Capitán" (the great captain) or "Kaiser" (an allusion to Franz Beckenbauer) because of his leadership ability, his passion, and his organisation prowess on the field. He was a defender who often joined the attack, and helped generate and finish offensive plays. At some point, he became history's top scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches (that record was since broken by Dutch defender Ronald Koeman).^[1]

His aerial game was effective both defensively and in attack. He scored frequently on headers in spite of his average height (1.73 m). He was a quality free kick and penalty shooter. He was also noted for using his elbows against rivals whilst managing to avoid the referee's gaze.

[edit] National team playing career

One of the pillars of the Argentine national team, he eventually captained the side during the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina. He was the first Argentine player to hold the World Cup, as it was handed to him first when Argentina won the final. During the qualifying rounds of the 1986 World Cup, Passarella scored the goal which ensured Argentina's qualification in the final minutes of their match against Peru.

A bout of enterocolitis meant that he missed the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He was replaced in the first team by defender José Luis Brown. Passarella had a fractious relationship with star player Diego Maradona and coach Carlos Bilardo during the tournament; he later claimed Bilardo and Maradona made sure that he was sidelined. Even so, by being a part of the squad, he became the only player to feature in both Argentina's World Cup-winning teams.

[edit] Coaching career

After his playing days were over, he became the coach of River Plate, where he won several national titles.

Appointed as coach of the Argentine national team to replace Alfio Basile, Passarella was coach during the qualification games for the 1998 World Cup and during the competition itself, which was held in France. Passarella held to close friend Américo Gallego as assistant coach. Argentina's performances never reached the expected heights, and the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals after a last minute 2-1 defeat to the Netherlands. After the elimination, Passarella left the post and was replaced by Marcelo Bielsa.

Passarella then became coach of Uruguay, but he left the post during the qualifying games for the FIFA World Cup 2002 Korea/Japan, after having problems summoning players from Uruguayan sides.

After that episode, Passarella had a brief and unsuccessful period as coach of Italian side Parma during 2001.

In 2003, he won the Mexican football league title with the team CF Monterrey. In March 2004, he was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers. He recently was hired as coach of Corinthians, but was fired after a few months, after a spell of bad results.

Some character issues associated with the "Kaiser" have irked the Argentine press and fans over the years.^[2] Some examples:

• When coaching the Argentine national team, Passarella made it known that he would not tolerate long hair and earrings. This provided a soap-opera-like quality to his (otherwise acceptable) relationship with stars like Gabriel Batistuta and Juan Sebastián Verón.^[3][4][5]
• As national coach, Passarella would invent excuses for lost matches. After a loss to Ecuador on June 2 1996, he said that "in the height of Quito, the ball won't curve" [1].

On January 9, 2006 he was appointed River Plate coach again after 12 years to occupy the vacancy left by Reinaldo Merlo's sudden departure.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As Player

Primera División Argentina - 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981
Serie A - 1988
1978 World Cup

[edit] As Manager

Primera División Argentina - 1989, 1991, 1993
Primera División de México (closing stage) - 2003

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Biography at Planetworldcup.com
• IFFHS Top Division Goal Scorers of all time among defensive Players
• Comprehensive season stats at RSSSF

Preceded by: Franz Beckenbauer (West Germany)	FIFA World Cup winning captain 1978	Succeeded by: Dino Zoff (Italy)
Preceded by: Hernán Darío Gómez	South American Coach of the Year 1997	Succeeded by: Carlos Bianchi

	Argentina Squad - 1978 FIFA World Cup
1 Alonso | 2 Ardiles | 3 Baley | 4 Bertoni | 5 Fillol | 6 Gallego | 7 L. Galván | 8 R. Galván | 9 Houseman | 10 Kempes | 11 Killer | 12 Larrosa | 13 Lavolpe | 14 Luque | 15 Olguín | 16 Ortiz | 17 Oviedo | 18 Pagnanini | 19 Passarella | 20 Tarantini | 21 Valencia | 22 Villa | Coach Menotti

	Argentina Squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup
1 Ardiles | 2 Baley | 3 Barbas | 4 Bertoni | 5 Calderón | 6 Díaz | 7 Fillol | 8 Galván | 9 Gallego | 10 Maradona | 11 Kempes | 12 Hernández | 13 Olarticoechea | 14 Olguín | 15 Passarella | 16 Pumpido | 17 Santamaría | 18 Tarantini | 19 Trossero | 20 Valdano | 21 Valencia | 22 Van Tuyne | Coach Menotti

	Argentina Squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup
1 Almirón | 2 Batista | 3 Bochini | 4 Borghi | 5 Brown | 6 Passarella | 7 Burruchaga | 8 Clausen | 9 Cuciuffo | 10 Maradona | 11 Valdano | 12 Enrique | 13 Garré | 14 Giusti | 15 Islas | 16 Olarticoechea | 17 Pasculli | 18 Pumpido | 19 Ruggeri | 20 Tapia | 21 Trobbiani | 22 Zelada | Coach Bilardo

	Argentina squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Roa | 2 Ayala | 3 Chamot | 4 Pineda | 5 Almeyda | 6 Sensini | 7 López | 8 Simeone | 9 Batistuta | 10 Ortega | 11 Verón | 12 Burgos | 13 Paz | 14 Vivas | 15 Astrada | 16 Berti | 17 Cavallero | 18 Balbo | 19 Crespo | 20 Gallardo | 21 Delgado | 22 Zanetti | Coach: Passarella

Club Atlético River Plate - Current Squad

1 Lux | 2 Tuzzio | 3 Domínguez | 4 Álvarez | 4 Ferrari | 5 Ahumada | 6 Lussenhoff | 7 Ortega | 8 Belluschi | 9 Farías | 10 Gallardo | 11 Falcao | 12 Carrizo | 14 Gerlo | 15 Sosa | 16 Zapata | 18 Sambueza | 19 Higuaín | 20 Nasuti | 24 Fernández | 25 Méndez | 26 Lima | 30 Pellegrino | 31 Mareque |  Domingo |  Martínez Montagnoli |  Toja |  Domingo |  Buonanotte |  Villalba |  Morales Neumann |  Pusineri |  Burdisso | coach: Passarella