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'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

Club playing career

National team playing career

Coaching career

Honours

As Player

As Manager

References

External links

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.

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.

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.

Honours

As Player

Primera División Argentina - 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981

'1978 World Cup'

'1986 World Cup'

As Manager

Primera División Argentina - 1989, 1991, 1993

Primera División de México (closing stage) - 2003

References

1. "The World's most successful Top Division Goal Scorers of all time among defensive players" by the IFFHS.
2.
De vuelta en casa

3.
El nuevo Daniel Passarella

4.
Passarella hizo escuela en Alemania

5.
Passarella appointed Parma coach

External links

★ Biography at Planetworldcup.com

★ IFFHS Top Division Goal Scorers of all time among defensive Players

★ Comprehensive season stats at RSSSF