Alfio Basile

Alfio "Coco" Basile (born 1 November 1943) is an Argentine football manager and former player. He played for Racing Club de Avellaneda and Huracán before becoming a manager. He coached many teams during his career, being most notable Racing Club de Avellaneda (where he won the Supercopa Libertadores, the first international title for the club since 1967), the Argentina national team (with 4 titles won) and Boca Juniors, where he won five titles in two years.

Basile holds the distinction of being the only manager to coach both Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi internationally, having called both up to the national team during his two separate tenures as Argentina's manager. The last team managed by Basile was Racing Club de Avellaneda, which he left in 2012.

Playing career

Born in Bahía Blanca, Basile is of Sicilian descent through his grandparents, who emigrated from Catania. He started his playing career at Club Bella Vista in his home city. From 1964 to 1970 he played for Racing Club, where he played as midfielder until the arrival of coach Juan José Pizutti, who moved him to the defensive line to play as centre-back. In that position, Basile formed a remembered defensive pair with Roberto Perfumo, winning three titles with the club, which reached its peak with the Intercontinental Cup won in 1967 to Celtic FC, the first intercontinental title for an Argentine team.

Basile totalized 186 matches with Racing Club before moving to Huracán, where he was a mainstay of the 1973 Metropolitano champions under coach César Luis Menotti. He also played for the Argentina national team. Basile retired as a player in 1975.

A Racing Club member took me to the club to try there. Carlos Peucelle was the coach by then. (After passing the test) I started to play at the 7th division, then promoted to higher ones, always playing as "number 5" (central midfielder). Last year, Dellatorre hanging me debut in Primera División, in the last round of the championship v. Huracán. I played as "number 6" (centre-back) — Basile in an interview with El Gráfico, 1965 Basile went on to coach San Lorenzo de Almagro, Club América of México and Colón de Santa Fe with varying degrees of success. In July 2005 he assumed the post of coach at Boca Juniors, winning the Recopa Sudamericana 2005 just a month later. He then won his first Argentine league title in the 2005 Apertura tournament. Four days later, Boca won the Copa Sudamericana 2005 against UNAM Pumas of Mexico.

In July 2006, he was once again offered the position of Argentina national football team coach and accepted the job taking over from José Pekerman. Before starting his new job, Basile stayed with Boca Juniors until 14 September 2006, when the team won a second consecutive Recopa Sudamericana 2006 with a victory over São Paulo FC of Brazil.

Vocal about his preference for the Italian Serie A and the Spanish La Liga over the English league, he made waves in England when he called for Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to transfer to Italy, claiming the switch would be better for the latter "even if he would have to play in the second division" with Juventus.

Basile led Argentina through the 2007 Copa América, which would be Lionel Messi's debut in the tournament. Argentina won all three games in the group stage, beating the United States, Colombia and Paraguay. After convincing victories over Peru and Mexico in the quarter-final and semi-final, respectively, they were favorites to beat Brazil in the final, but were defeated 3–0.

On 16 October 2008, amidst the controversy over the historic defeat that Argentina suffered against Chile in the World Cup qualifiers, the first time they had lost to Chile in 35 years, Basile tendered his resignation. This eventually paved the road to the appointment of Diego Maradona as national team coach. As a coach, Basile had in total two tenures at the helm of the Argentina national football team, 1991–1994 and 2006–2008.

On 1 July 2009, Basile returned to Boca Juniors after three years, replacing Carlos Ischia. But after a series of bad results, especially the failure to qualify for the Copa Libertadores 2010 and a crushing 3–1 defeat to archrivals River Plate during a summer tournament at Mar del Plata, he resigned on 21 January 2010.

On 26 December 2011, Basile returned to Racing Club for his fourth spell as their coach, taking over from Diego Simeone. One year later, he resigned after a confusing incident in the Estadio Libertadores de América's change room, with Racing forward Teo Gutiérrez being accused of pointing a gun at a teammate.

Since his departure from Racing, Basile has not managed any team, stating he is "retired" from the activity. Basile has occasionally appeared in some interviews and the TV show Buenos Muchachos (Good Guys) where he participated along with fellow Héctor Veira and singer Cacho Castaña.

In 2019, Basile offered to manage Flat Earth FC, a Spanish amateur team based around the idea that the Earth is flat. He said that he agreed with club president Javi Poves's views on the subject.

Honours Player Racing Club Primera División: 1966 Copa Libertadores: 1967 Intercontinental Cup: 1967 Intercontinental Champions' Supercup runner-up: 1969

Huracán Primera División: 1973 Metropolitano

Manager Racing Club Supercopa Sudamericana: 1988 Recopa Sudamericana runner-up: 1989

Vélez Sarsfield Argentine Primera División runner-up: 1985 Nacional

Club América CONCACAF Giants Cup: 2001

Boca Juniors Primera División: 2005 Apertura, 2006 Clausura Copa Sudamericana: 2005 Recopa Sudamericana: 2005, 2006

Argentina Copa América: 1991, 1993; runner-up: 2007 FIFA Confederations Cup: 1992 CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions: 1993