César Luis Menotti, coach who led Argentina to their first World Cup title, dies at 85
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — César Luis Menotti, the charismatic coach who led Argentina to its first World Cup title in 1978, has died, the Argentine Football Federation said Sunday. He was 85 years old.
“Goodbye, dear Flaco!” he added the association’s statement, using the nickname Menotti, which means “the thin one”.
The association did not provide the cause of death. Local media reports said Menotti was admitted to a clinic in March with severe anemia. He reportedly underwent surgery for phlebitis in April and subsequently returned home.
His passion for football and his keen ability to explain its mechanics were Menotti’s defining characteristics as a coach, being considered one of the most emblematic and influential coaches in Argentine football.
Menotti was a political activist and affiliated member of the Argentine Communist Party, a boxing fan and admirer of the works of Latin American writers Mario Benedetti, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Sábato and Joan Manuel Serrat, among others.
“I was once interviewed by Borges, and when I asked him if it bothered him that I smoked, he told me: ‘What intoxicates me is not cigarettes, but stupid conversations,’” Menotti recalled in one of his last interviews .
“So I asked about everything… but not about football, because I understand football!” he added.
He began his career as a player for Rosario Central (1960-1963 and 1967), then went to Racing Club (1964) and Boca Juniors (1965-1966), all Argentine clubs. Menotti played for the New York Generals in the USA (1967), followed by Santos in Brazil (1968) and Juventus in Italy (1969-1970).
At Santos, he played alongside Pelé, whom he never hesitated to classify as the best player among legends.
Menotti coached the Argentine national team between 1974 and 1983. He was convinced that the team did not get the recognition it deserved when it won the 1978 World Cup because the country was governed by a military junta responsible for widespread human rights violations. His detractors always 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 later said soured their relationship for years.
Menotti coached the Mexican national team in 1991-1992. He also managed Barcelona (1983-1984), where he had Maradona in his squad; Atlético de Madrid (1987-88); Penarol from Uruguay (1990-91); Sampdoria from Italy (1997) and Tecos from Mexico (2007) — his last job as a coach.
For years, Menotti often had a cigarette dangling between his lips, but he mostly kicked the habit in 2011 after a three-day hospitalization due to tobacco addiction.
He was also known for wearing long but well-groomed hair. He said he didn’t rely on hairdressers. “I cut my own hair. I take the scissors, cut the ends.”
Menotti began growing his hair long in the early 1970s. “One day I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to cut my hair until we lose it.’ And we went 10 games undefeated, so it all started as a joke,” he said.
In recent years, Menotti said he did not fear death. “It’s the only thing I’m sure of. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t died at some point,” he said in 2014.
