Helenio Herrera

Helenio Herrera

Herrera covered on Argentine sports magazine
El Gráfico in 1964.
Personal information
Full nameHelenio Herrera Gavilán
Date of birth10 April 1910
Place of birthBuenos Aires, Argentina
Date of death9 November 1997 (aged 87)
Place of deathVenice, Italy
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
Roches Noires
1931–1932RC Casablanca
1932–1933CASG Paris
1933–1935Stade Français
1935–1937Charleville
1937–1939Excelsior Roubaix
1940–1942Red Star Olympique
1942–1943Stade Français
1943–1944EF Paris-Capitale
1944–1945Puteaux
Teams managed
1944–1945Puteaux
1945–1948Stade Français
1948–1949Real Valladolid
1949–1952Atlético Madrid
1952Málaga
1953Deportivo de La Coruña
1953–1957Sevilla
1957–1958Belenenses
1958–1960Barcelona
1960–1968Internazionale
1968–1970Roma
1973–1974Internazionale
1978–1979Rimini
1979–1981Barcelona
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).
This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Herrera and the second or maternal family name is Gavilán.

Helenio Herrera Gavilán (Spanish pronunciation: [eˈlenjo eˈreɾa ɣaβiˈlan]; 10 April 1910 – 9 November 1997) was an Argentine football player and manager. He is best remembered for his tremendous success with the 1960s Inter Milan team known as Grande Inter.

Herrera was born in Argentina to Spanish immigrant parents who had left Spain for political reasons; his father was a well-known anarchist who had fought against Franco.

During his managerial career, Herrera won 4 La Liga titles in Spain (with Atlético Madrid and Barcelona) and 3 Serie A titles in Italy with Inter. He also guided Inter to European glory, winning 2 consecutive European Cups, among several other honours; he is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time.[1]

Herrera was arguably the first manager to collect credit for his teams' performances, in the process becoming a superstar in the world of football. Up to that time managers were more marginal figures in a team. All teams throughout Europe were known for their headline-grabbing individual players, e.g. Di Stéfano's Real Madrid, whereas Inter during the 1960s is still referred to as Herrera's Inter.

Playing career

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 Charleville (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 successes, his managing career, coinciding with the early beginnings of UEFA competitions, had a marked effect on the game's tactical definitions.

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 club. Herrera moved to Spain, where he spent the next six years with Real Valladolid, Atlético Madrid, where he won the championship in 1950 and 1951, 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 forced him to leave the club in 1960.

He immediately 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.[2] During this time he was also coaching Spain (between 1959 and 1962) and Italy (1966–67).

In 1968, Herrera moved to AS Roma where he became the highest paid manager in the world with a contract worth an estimated £150,000 per year. He won the Coppa Italia in his first season but relations with club president Alvaro Marchini had already soured over the tragic death of his centre-forward Giuliano Taccola in the team dressing room at an away game against Cagliari. The following season, 1969–70, erratic results in the League gave Marchini the excuse to sack him.

He returned to management for a one year stint with Inter for the 1973–74 season. Herrera 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.

Influence

He pioneered the use of psychological motivating skills – his pep-talk phrases are still quoted today, e.g. "he who doesn't give it all, gives nothing", "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) and "Class + Preparation + Intelligence + Athleticism = Championships. These slogans were often plastered on billboards around the ground and chanted by players during training sessions.

He also enforced 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 also sent club personnel to players' homes during the week to perform '"bed-checks". He introduced the ritiro, a pre-match remote country hotel retreat that started with the collection of players on Thursday to prepare for a Sunday game.

He was also one of the first managers to call on 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 understanding of the Catenaccio was slightly different from that practised by other Italian teams and the original Verrou, as he often used the full backs (particularly Giacinto Facchetti) as halfbacks (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 defence.

In 2004 Herrera's surviving widow Fiora Gandolfi released a book called Tacalabala. In it was collected sayings, sketches and notes from Herrera's notebooks and journals.[3][4]

Honours

Atlético de Madrid
Barcelona
Internazionale
Roma

Managerial stats

Nat Team From To Record
GWDLWin %GFGA+/-
France Stade Français 1946 1948 7234162247.22%140116+24
Spain Real Valladolid 1948 1949 261021438.46%3859-21
Spain Atlético Madrid 1949 1952 8648142455.81%238158+80
Spain Málaga 1952 1952 1151545.45%2017+3
Spain Sevilla 1953 1956 904783552.22%206151+55
Portugal Belenenses 1956 1958 5225111648.08%12892+36
Spain Barcelona 1958 1960 60465976.67%18254+128
Italy Internazionale 1960 1968 268153744157.09%485224+261
Italy Roma 1968 1973 15044614529.33%154155-1
Italy Internazionale 1973 1974 301211740%4733+14
Italy Rimini 1978 1979 38318177.89%1739-22
Spain Barcelona 1979 1981 25145656%5728+29
Total Career 90844122624148.57%17121126+586

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 in the same years.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Greatest Managers, No. 5: Herrera". Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  2. ↑ Fox, Norman (11 November 1997). "Obituary: Helenio Herrera – Obituaries, News". The Independent (UK). Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  3. ↑ "Fiora Gandofi – books" (in Italian). Fioragandolfi.it. 29 April 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  4. ↑ "Herrera's creative engine room: God, Freud and Yoga – Professor Champions League". FourFourTwo. 20 January 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2011.

External links

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Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Nereo Rocco		 European Cup Winning Coach
1963–64 & 1964–65 		Succeeded by
Miguel Muñoz