He was the esthete among the football teachers, the philosopher on the coaching bench. César Luis Menotti was never just about winning, but always about finding the most elegant way to victory. Now the Argentine world champion coach from 1978 has died at the age of 85.
“The ball is to the player what words are to the poet: at the foot or at the head it can transform into a work of art,” he once said. “Football gave me a way to express myself.”
With his first coaching title in 1973 with the Huracán club in the Argentine league, “El Flaco” (the thin one) defined his style: “Offensive, clean, happy” – in contrast to a purely result-oriented game. “The teams that will be remembered are those who won with good play,” he once told the newspaper “Clarín”.
1978 final victory against the Netherlands
This is “left-wing” football. His greatest triumph came precisely at the time of the military dictatorship in Argentina. The junta around dictator Rafael Videla hoped that the 1978 World Cup in their own country would bring recognition and prestige beyond Argentina. And Menotti – who had even become a member of the Communist Party in his hometown of Rosario – delivered.
In the final, the Albiceleste beat the Netherlands 3-1 and were crowned world champions for the first time. However, the path to the final was paved with scandals – the hosts were said to have been favored again and again. The 6-0 win against Peru is considered one of the most controversial games in football history – there is numerous evidence that the victory was simply bought.
Open rejection of the military junta
Although Menotti did not openly criticize the military, he did let his opposition to the junta shine through. “My players have defeated the dictatorship of tactics and the terror of systems,” he said, for example, after the World Cup victory. After the Argentine national team failed at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Menotti had to resign from his post.
In the following years, the passionate chain smoker trained, among others, FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid as well as the Mexican national team. At the age of 80, he got another job with the Argentine Football Association and became general director of his country’s various national teams.
Football philosopher to the end
But above all, he was a football philosopher until the end, expressing his thoughts in numerous columns and interviews. He railed against the market logic in football and the economization of the game. “Football is so much more than a business,” said Menotti in a radio interview.