Cesar Luis Menotti, the charismatic coach who led Argentina to its first World Cup title in 1978, has died, the Argentine Football Association announced on Sunday. It was 85.
“Goodbye, dear Flaco!” The union’s statement was added, using Menotti’s nickname meaning “the thin one”.
The club did not give a cause of death. Local media reported that Menotti was admitted to a clinic in March with severe anemia. He reportedly underwent surgery for phlebitis in April and then returned home.
A passion for football and a keen ability to explain its mechanics were Menotti’s hallmarks as a manager and he was considered one of the most iconic and influential managers in Argentine football.
Menotti was a political activist and member of the Communist Party of Argentina, a fan of boxing and an admirer of the works of Latin American authors Mario Benedetti, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Sábato and Joan Manuel Serrat, among others.
“Once I interviewed Borges and when I asked him if it bothered him that I smoked, he said: ‘What gets me drunk is not the cigarette, but the stupid conversations,'” Menotti recalled in one of his last interviews.
“Well, I asked about everything … but not about football, because I know about football!” he added.
He started his career as a player for Rosario Central (1960-1963 and 1967), then moved to Racing Club (1964) and Boca Juniors (1965-1966), all teams in Argentina. Menotti played for the New York Generals in the US (1967), followed by Brazil’s Santos (1968) and Italy’s Juventus (1969-1970).
At Santos he played alongside Pele, whom he never hesitated to qualify as the best player among the legends.
Menotti coached Argentina’s national team between 1974 and 1983. He was convinced that the team did not receive the recognition it deserved when it won the World Cup in 1978 because the country was run by a military junta responsible for widespread human rights abuses. His critics often recall 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 a 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 team. Atletico Madrid (1987-88); Penarol of Uruguay (1990-91); Italy’s Sampdoria (1997) and Mexico’s Tecos (2007) — his last coaching job.
For years, Menotti often had a cigarette dangling between his lips, but he mostly kicked the habit in 2011 after a three-day hospitalization stemming from his tobacco addiction.
He was also known for wearing long but neat hair. He said he didn’t rely on hairdressers. “I cut my own hair. I take the scissors, I cut the ends.”
Menotti started 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.’ And we went 10 games unbeaten, so it all started as a joke,” he said.
In his later 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.