Helenio Herrera

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Helenio Herrera
Personal information
Full name	Helenio Herrera
Date of birth	17 April 1910
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of death	9 November 1997
Place of death	Venice, Italy
Nickname	H.H., Il Mago (The Wizard)
Teams managed
1944-1945 1945-1948 1949 1949-1952 1952 1953 1953-1956 1956-1958 1958-1960 1960-1968 1968-1973 1973-1974 1978-1979 1979-1981	Puteaux Stade Français Real Valladolid Atlético Madrid CD Málaga Deportivo de La Coruña Sevilla FC CF Os Belenenses FC Barcelona Inter Milan AS Roma Inter Milan Rimini FC Barcelona
* Appearances (Goals)

Helenio Herrera (born April 17, 1910 in Buenos Aires; died November 9, 1997 in Venice) was a French-Argentine football player and manager. Herrera had a relatively modest career as a player but, with 16 major titles, he became not only one of the most successful, but also one of the most influential managers in the history of the game.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Managing career 3 Influence 4 Titles 5 Trivia 6 External links

[edit] Playing career

There is a controversy regarding his year of birth, as, in the 50s, he manipulated his birth year changing it to from 1910 to 1916. While born in Argentina, Herrera emigrated at age four with his parents (both Spanish) to Casablanca, Morocco where he adopted French citizenship. Playing as a defender, in 1932 he earned a transfer from RC Casablanca to mainland France - CASG Paris. Before World War II, Herrera (or H.H. as he was known) played in Stade Français, FCO Charlevile (where he was called up for the national team twice) and Excelsior Roubaix. During the war, he played for five years more in Red Star Paris, Stade Français, EF Paris-Capitale and Puteaux, where he started his managing career in 1944 as a player-manager. He retired in 1945, and while his playing career was very short of notable, his managing career, coinciding with the early beginnings of UEFA competitions, had a marked effect on the game's tactical definitions.

[edit] Managing career

After his first season in Puteaux, Herrera rejoined Stade Français for a third time now as manager. After three seasons with no trophies collected, the club's president opted to sell the franchise. Herrera moved to Spain, where he spent the next six years in minor stints with Real Valladolid, Atlético Madrid, CD Málaga, Deportivo de La Coruña and Sevilla FC, before entering a two year tenure with Lisbon side CF Os Belenenses. Later returning to Spain, he managed giants FC Barcelona, but several problems, including disagreements between him and star player Ladislao Kubala obliged him to leave the club in 1960.

He emigrated to Italy and signed with Internazionale, winning two European Champions Cup in his stay with the club, where he modified a 5-3-2 tactic known as the Verrou (door bolt) to include larger flexibility for counter attacks - and the Catenaccio was born. During this time he was also coaching Spain (between 1959 and 1962) and Italy (1966-67). In 1968 the moved to AS Roma (winning one cup), but returned for a one year stint with Inter for the 1973-74 season. Then suffered a heart attack, did not want to coach full time anymore and retired in Venice where he lived the rest of his life. While inactive between 1974 and 1978, Herrera returned briefly during the end of the decade, managing Rimini Calcio and finally ending his career with a return to FC Barcelona for two half seasons in 1980 and 1981. Former player Sandro Mazzola's brother Ferruccio has accused him of using forbidden drugs to enhance the performance of his players while coaching Inter, what might have led to the premature death of some of his former players, among them Armando Picchi and Marcello Giusti.

[edit] Influence

He pioneered the use of psychological motivating skills -his pep-talk phrases are still quoted today, e.g. "who doesn't give it all, gives nothing" or "with 10 our team plays better than with 11" (after his team had to face the second half of a game with only 10 players on the field). He also enfored a strict discipline code, for the first time forbidding players to drink or smoke and controlling their diet - once in Inter he suspended a player after telling the press "we came to play in Rome" instead of "we came to win in Rome". He was also one of the first managers to call the support of the "12th player" - the spectators. While indirectly, this led to the appearance of the first Ultras movements in the late 60s. While defensive in nature, his take on the Catenaccio was slightly different than that practiced by other Italian teams and the original Verrou, as he often used the full backs (particullary Giacinto Facchetti) as wingbacks (defensively supported by the libero) to launch faster counter-attacks, a staple of Italian tactics - yet, he never denied the heart of his team relied on defense. He was also the first manager to collect credit for his teams' performances. Up to that time managers were more marginals figures in a team. All teams were known for their headline-grabbing individual players, exampled by such a star like Di Stéfano's Real Madrid, whereas Inter FC during the 60s is still referred to as Herrera's Inter. After Herrera, managers such as Johan Cruijff (FC Barcelona 1991/95), Fabio Capello (AC Milan 1991/96) or José Mourinho (FC Porto 2002/2004) were publicly lent and given most of the credit for producing a successful team.

[edit] Titles

Altogether Helenio Herrera won 16 major titles in his coaching career. Here is an overview:

Atlético de Madrid	1950 - Championship 1951 - Championship
FC Barcelona	1959 - Championship 1959 - Spanish Cup 1959 - Inter City Fairs Cup (Wefa Cup) 1960 - Championship 1960 - Inter City Fairs Cup (Wefa Cup) 1981 - Spanish Cup
Internazionale FC	1963 - Championship 1964 - European Champions Cup 1964 - Intercontinental Cup 1965 - Championship 1965 - European Champions Cup 1965 - Intercontinental Cup 1965 - Italian Cup 1966 - Championship
AS Roma	1969 - Italian Cup

Helenio Herrera was the first coach that coached three national teams:

1946-1948: France 1959-1962: Spain 1966-1967: Italy (together with Ferruccio Valcareggi)

Since then, most prominently Guus Hiddink, coaching the Netherlands, South Korea, Australia and Russia as well as Bora Milutinović, coaching Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States, Nigeria, China, Honduras and Jamaica have surpassed him.

[edit] Trivia

Helenio Herrera was nicknamed il Mago (the Wizard) and H.H. (from the initials of his name) by Italian sports journalists (who recognized him as one of the finest coaches in Italian football history) because on occasion he would provocatively announce the results of Sunday's games and often his prediction turned out to be correct. He is unrelated with the less famous Heriberto Herrera, another football coach who directed Juventus and Inter Milan in the same years.

Preceded by Nereo Rocco

European Cup Winning Coach 1963-64 & 1964-65

Succeeded by Miguel Muñoz

[edit] External links

• La Liga manager stats
• Biography (Spanish)
• Helenio Herrera's Inter under doping suspicion (El Inter de Helenio Herrera, bajo la sombra del dóping)

	Spain squad - 1962 FIFA World Cup
1 Araquistáin | 2 Sadurní | 3 Carmelo | 4 Collar | 5 del Sol | 6 Di Stéfano | 7 Echeberría | 8 Garay | 9 Gento | 10 Gracia | 11 Rivilla | 12 Peiró | 13 Pachín | 14 Puskás | 15 Eulogio | 16 Reija | 17 Rodri | 18 Adelardo | 19 Santamaría | 20 Segarra | 21 Suárez | 22 Vergés | Coach: Herrera