Daniel Passarella

Daniel Alberto Passarella (born 25 May 1953) is an Argentine former footballer and manager, who is considered one of the greatest defenders of all time. As a player for Argentina, he was part of two FIFA World Cup-winning teams; he captained his nation to victory at the 1978 World Cup which Argentina hosted, and was also part of the winning squad in 1986. He is the only Argentine player to win two world cups.

Although playing as a centre-back, Passarella was also a proficient goalscorer; at one point, he was football's highest-scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches, a record which was subsequently broken by Dutch player Ronald Koeman. In 2004, Passarella was named one of the 125 greatest living footballers by Pelé at a FIFA awards ceremony. In 2017, he was named as the 56th best player by FourFourTwo in their list of the 100 all-time greatest footballers. As a manager, he coached the Argentina and Uruguay national teams, among several club sides.

After his playing and coaching career, Passarella also served as the president of River Plate for four years, after winning the elections in December 2009.

Club career

Passarella was born in Chacabuco, Buenos Aires . He started his career at Sarmiento of Junín, Buenos Aires, in 1971. He played there until 1973, when he joined River Plate. Playing for Los Millonarios, he was constantly starting to be called up to the Argentina national team.

After his good performances at the 1982 World Cup, he joined Serie A side Fiorentina in the summer of 1982. At the Italian club, he scored 11 goals during the 1985–86 season, a record for a defender at the time, although the goal tally was surpassed by Marco Materazzi in the 2000–01 season.

In 1986, he joined Internazionale, where he ended his Italian playing career in 1988. After his successful spell in the Serie A, he returned to River Plate, where he played until his retirement.

He was called "El Gran Capitán" ('the Great Captain', the nickname of the Argentinian independence hero, José de San Martín),"El Kaiser" (an allusion to German defender Franz Beckenbauer) or "El Caudillo" ('the Chief') because of his leadership ability, his passion, and his organisational prowess on the field. He was a defender who often joined the attack, and helped generate and finish offensive plays. He was the all-time highest-scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches, a record that was later broken by Dutch player Ronald Koeman. Passarella had a fractious relationship with captain Diego Maradona and coach Carlos Bilardo during the tournament. He later claimed Bilardo and Maradona made certain that he was sidelined; he did not play any of the matches in 1986, not even as a substitute. Despite his small stature (1.73m), he was also known to be good in the air, which made him a goal threat on indirect set pieces, with many of his goals coming from headers; he was also known for scoring decisive goals in important games throughout his career, and was also an accurate direct free kick and penalty kick taker.

In addition to his offensive qualities, he stood out for his excellent technical ability and ball-playing skills, which allowed him to start attacking plays from the back with his passing. He was also known for using his elbows aggressively when defending. Dutch international footballer Ruud Gullit described Passarella as "so intensely vicious, a real Argentinian killer". Nicknamed El Gran Capitán ("The Great Captain," in Spanish), Fernando Redondo and Claudio Caniggia, two of the most talented Argentine players of that generation, eventually refused to play for Passarella and were excluded from his squad.

Argentina's performances never reached the expected heights during the 1998 World Cup; the team was eliminated in the quarter-final after a last minute 2–1 defeat to the Netherlands. After the elimination, Passarella left the post and was replaced by compatriot Marcelo Bielsa. Subsequently, Passarella became the manager of the Uruguay national team, the first foreigner to take the job of Uruguay team, but he left the post during the 2002 World Cup qualification process. Afterwards, Passarella had a brief and unsuccessful stint as the coach of Italian side Parma in 2001, where, despite success in the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia, he was ultimately sacked after losing all of his five matches in the league, with the club sitting in the relegation zone.

In 2003, he won the Mexican league title with Monterrey. In March 2004, he was named by Pelé as one of the 125 greatest living footballers. He was then hired as coach of Corinthians in Brazil, but was fired after a few months after a spell of bad results.

On 9 January 2006, he was appointed River Plate coach again after 12 years to occupy the vacancy left by Reinaldo Merlo's sudden departure. On 15 November 2007, he resigned as coach after River was beaten by penalties by Arsenal de Sarandí in the semi-final of the 2007 Copa Sudamericana.

In the summer of 2018, after publicly expressing interest in returning he was widely seen as the frontrunner to become the new manager of Monterrey for a second stint after the departure of Antonio Mohamed but the club ultimately decided to appoint Diego Alonso.

Administrative career Passarella was elected as president of River Plate in December 2009. The club was in poor financial shape when Passarella took charge. River Plate were relegated for the first time in the club's 110-year history in 2011. Passarella was alleged to have engaged in fraud during his presidency.

Career statistics

Club

+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

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1971

1972

Honours

Player River Plate

Primera División (7): 1975 Metropolitano, 1975 Nacional, 1977 Metropolitano, 1979 Metropolitano, 1979 Nacional, 1980 Metropolitano, 1981 Nacional Copa Libertadores Runner-up: 1976

Argentina Youth Toulon Tournament: 1975

Argentina FIFA World Cup: 1978, 1986

Individual Argentine Footballer of the Year: 1976 FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1978 World Soccer World XI: 1982, 1983 Serie A Team of The Year: 1984 FIFA 100: 2004 Golden Foot Legends Award: 2015 AFA Team of All Time (published 2015) World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time Fiorentina All-time XI IFFHS All-time Men's B Dream Team: 2021 IFFHS South America Men's Team of All Time: 2021 IFFHS Argentina All Times Dream Team: 2021 IFFHS Legends

Manager River Plate Primera División: 1989–90, Apertura 1991, Apertura 1993 Supercopa Libertadores runner-up: 1991

Monterrey Mexican Primera División: Clausura 2003

Argentina Pan American Games Gold Medal: 1995 Olympic Games Silver Medal: 1996

Individual South American Coach of the Year: 1997

President River Plate Primera B Nacional: 2011–12