The World Cup title with Argentina in 1978 made César Luis Menotti an icon in his homeland. With “left-wing football” he united a country that was suffering under the right-wing military junta. The Argentines pay homage to one of their greatest.
Smoking on the sidelines – that’s how the football world knew Argentine coach César Luis Menotti.
Imago
Football coach César Luis Menotti was never just about winning. He preferred to play “left-wing football”. He defined his style as “offensive, clean, happy”. In contrast to a purely result-oriented game, the coach played “intelligent” football with his teams. “The teams that win with good football will be remembered,” he once told the Argentine newspaper “Clarín”. With his interpretation of the game, “El Flaco” (the thin one) has achieved legendary status in his homeland.
In 1978 he helped Argentina achieve its greatest sporting success as national coach. In the final in Buenos Aires, the chain-smoking Menotti competed with his counterpart Ernst Happel as the Argentines won the game against the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time. With his “left-wing football”, Menotti led the “Albiceleste” to their first world championship title in their own country. A country that at that time was suffering from the tyranny of the right-wing military junta.
Cesar Luis Menotti, a coach who was much more than football.
The skinny. 🩵
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) May 6, 2024
Was the path to the 1978 World Cup title bought?
The dictator Rafael Videla wanted to improve Argentina’s image in the world with the World Cup. And of all people, Menotti, a communist and dissident, gave him the title. But Menotti’s greatest triumph as a coach comes with a caveat. Argentina’s World Cup win is plagued with allegations of corruption and bribery.
In particular, reaching the final is still controversial to this day. Argentina needed a win by at least four goals in the decisive game of the second round against Peru in order to move past Brazil in the table. Finally, the team around Mario Kempes, Daniel Passarella, Leopoldo Luque and Daniel Bertoni scored six. The victory is considered one of the most controversial games in football history. To this day, the suspicion persists that the military junta bought its victory with a payment of 50 million dollars and a free delivery of grain to Peru. However, this was never proven.
Menotti’s role is also unclear. Was he an accomplice or a victim? Although he did not openly criticize the military, he let his rejection shine through. “We don’t play for the VIP gallery full of military people, we play for the people. We are not defending dictatorship, but freedom,” he is said to have said to his players before the 1978 World Cup final.
After winning the title, he said: “My talented and clever players have defeated the dictatorship of tactics and the terror of systems.” However, not everyone accepted the role of left-wing fighter. Although Menotti was an intellectual, he came from the upper class and was married to the daughter of a very wealthy banker.
Menotti Manager (1978) 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/DmUAtHS9Xg
— MotherSoccer (@MotherSoccerNL) May 5, 2024
Menotti was a champion of the working class
Menotti was considered a football philosopher throughout his life. “The ball is to the player what words are to the poet,” he once said. It can be transformed into a work of art on the foot or on the head. And: “Football gave me the opportunity to express myself.” The game belongs to the working class from which it emerged. Menotti wanted to put people at the center of his football. Recognize and continually develop the skills and potential of your players.
Menotti, who like Messi came from the city of Rosario, once played as a striker with Pelé at FC Santos. He played eleven international matches for the Argentine national team. In 1970 he started his coaching career with Newell’s Old Boys. He won his first title as a coach in 1973 with the club Atlético Huracán in the Argentine League.
In 1974 he was appointed coach of the Albiceleste. At that time, Argentine football was in crisis. At the World Cup in Germany, the team struggled through the preliminary round, but failed in the second final round to Brazil and the Netherlands. Four years earlier, Argentina had not even qualified for the World Cup in Mexico.
César Luis Menotti (right) gave Diego Armando Maradona (left) his debut in the national team – and then left him out of the squad for the 1978 World Cup.
Imago
Menotti started a change and conveyed his style of play to the team. In 1977 he let 16-year-old Diego Armando Maradona make his national team debut, but left him out of the squad before the 1978 World Cup. Menotti felt that the young star was not yet mature enough to withstand the pressure of the home World Cup. A year later they won the Junior World Championships together in Japan. Maradona scored six goals at the tournament and once said: “Menotti was the greatest. The best coach I had.”
After his death was announced, other greats of Argentine football also paid homage to Menotti. “One of the great figures in our football has left us,” wrote superstar Lionel Messi on Instagram. Mario Kempes, the top scorer at the 1978 World Cup, described Menotti’s death as an “irreplaceable loss”. He wrote: “For me, César was much more than just a colleague. He was a friend and an invaluable mentor.”
Even Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Milei expressed his condolences. “Deep sadness at the departure of the leader of a group that gave the country one of the greatest joys. Although I belong to a different school, it would be foolish to deny the contribution of César Luis Menotti.”
RIP.
Deep pain for the departure of the leader of a group that has given one of the greatest joys to the country. Although I adhere to another school, it would be foolish to deny the contribution of César Luis Menotti.
Goodbye Skinny… pic.twitter.com/DBIbIrrHyw— Javier Milei (@JMilei) May 5, 2024
“His legacy will live on”
Menotti was Argentina’s national coach until 1983. This was followed by positions at FC Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Sampdoria Genoa and some clubs in South America. The greatest success, however, remained the World Cup title in their own country; he is the reason for Menotti’s legendary fame to this day.
Menotti remained loyal to the football business until old age. At the age of 80, he took a job in the Argentine Football Association, until recently he was general director of the country’s various national teams. He enjoyed Argentina’s third World Cup title in 2022 in Qatar. «The secret of this team is that it plays football. “It makes me happy that she respects the history of the game,” he said before the final.
Menotti felt confirmed in the football he had shaped decades earlier. “His legacy will live on in every goal, in every game and in every heart that loves this sport,” wrote Mario Kempes.
César Luis Menotti died on Sunday at the age of 85. He suffered from anemia.