Daniel Alberto Passarella (born 25 May 1953) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a centre back, and former manager of the Argentina and Uruguay national football teams. He was captain of the Argentina team that won the 1978 World Cup. He was president of the River Plate sports club for four years after winning the elections by a very close margin in December 2009.[2]

Daniel Passarella

Passarella holding the FIFA World Cup trophy after the 1978 final.
Personal information
Full name	Daniel Alberto Passarella
Date of birth	(1953-05-25) 25 May 1953 (age 69)
Place of birth	Chacabuco, Argentina
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Position(s)	Centre back, sweeper
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1971–1973	Sarmiento	36	(9)
1973–1982	River Plate	226	(90)
1982–1986	Fiorentina	109	(26)
1986–1988	Internazionale	44	(9)
1988–1989	River Plate	32	(9)
Total		447	(143)
National team
1976–1986	Argentina	70	(22)
Teams managed
1989–1994	River Plate
1994–1998	Argentina
1999–2001	Uruguay
2001	Parma
2002–2004	Monterrey
2005	Corinthians
2006–2007	River Plate
Honours Men's football Representing  Argentina FIFA World Cup Winner 1978 Argentina Winner 1986 Mexico Summer Olympics 1996 Atlanta Team Competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Considered one of the greatest South American defenders of all time,[3] Passarella was also a proficient goalscorer; at one point he was football's top scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches, a record subsequently broken by Dutch defender Ronald Koeman.[4] In 2004, Passarella was named one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony.[5] In 2007, The Times placed him at number 36 in their list of the 50 hardest footballers in history.[6] In 2017 he has been included in the FourFourTwo list of the 100 all-time greatest players, at the 56th position.[7]

Club career

Passarella was born in Chacabuco, Buenos Aires Province. He started his career at Sarmiento of Junin, Buenos Aires province. From there he joined River Plate, where he became one of the best Argentinian defenders of his period, and started to be chosen in the Argentinian national team.

After his good performances at the 1982 World Cup, in 1982 he joined Fiorentina of Italy, where he scored the goal record for a defender in one season (11 in 1986) in the Italian Serie A; his record remained until 2001, when he was beaten by Marco Materazzi.[8]

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, nickname of Argentine independence hero José de San Martín),"El Kaiser" (an allusion to Franz Beckenbauer) or "El Caudillo" (the Chief)[9] 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 top scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches, a record since broken by Dutch defender Ronald Koeman.[4]

His aerial game was effective both defensively and in attack. He scored frequent headers in spite of his average height (1.73 m). He was an excellent free kick and penalty shooter. He was also noted for using his elbows against rivals whilst managing to avoid the referee's gaze. Passarella and Chilean Elías Figueroa are considered the best South America defenders.[10]

International career

As one of the pillars of the Argentina national football team, he would captain the team during the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina. He was the first Argentine player to hold the World Cup, as it was handed to him first when Argentina won the final. During the qualifying rounds of the 1986 World Cup, Passarella contributed to the goal which ensured Argentina's qualification in the final minutes of their match against Peru by allowing teammate Ricardo Gareca to score.

A bout of enterocolitis caused him to miss the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He was replaced in the first team by defender José Luis Brown. 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,[3] although when he was with the national team, he was the only player to feature in two Argentina World Cup-winning teams.^{[citation needed]}

Coaching career

His playing days over, he became the coach of River Plate, where he won several national titles. Appointed as coach of the Argentine national team to replace Alfio Basile, Passarella was coach during the qualification games for the 1998 World Cup and during the competition itself, which was held in France. Passarella held to close friend Américo Gallego as assistant coach. Passarella had banned long hair, earrings and homosexuals in his squad, leading to disputes with several players.[11][12] Fernando Redondo and Claudio Caniggia eventually refused to play for Passarella and were excluded from the squad.[13]

Argentina's performances never reached the expected heights, and the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals after a last minute 2–1 defeat to the Netherlands. After the elimination, Passarella left the post and was replaced by Marcelo Bielsa. Passarella became coach of Uruguay, but he left the post during the Cup qualifying matches, after having problems summoning players from Uruguayan sides. After that episode, Passarella had a brief and unsuccessful period as coach of Parma in Italy in 2001, where he was sacked after five successive losses.[14]

In 2003, he won the Mexican football league title with the team C.F. Monterrey. In March 2004, he was named by Pelé as one of the top 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-finals 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 CF Monterrey for a second stint after the departure of Antonio Mohamed but the club ultimately decided to appoint Diego Alonso.[15]

Career statistics

Club

International

Three World Cup moments of Passarella as player of Argentina, (left): Being raised by the supporters after winning the 1978 final; (right): jumping to head the ball v Brazil in 1982; (right): with Diego Maradona in Mexico, 1986

Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Passarella goal.[16]

List of international goals scored by Daniel Passarella

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	28 October 1976	Lima, Peru	Peru	2–1	3–1	Friendly
2	10 November 1976	José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Peru	1–0	1–0	Friendly
3	5 June 1977	La Bombonera, Buenos Aires, Argentina	West Germany	1–3	1–3	Friendly
4	18 June 1977	La Bombonera, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Scotland	1–1	1–1	Friendly
5	3 July 1977	La Bombonera, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Yugoslavia	1–0	1–0	Friendly
6	23 March 1978	Nacional, Lima, Peru	Peru	2–0	3–1	Friendly
7	5 April 1978	La Bombonera, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Romania	1–0	2–0	Friendly
8				2–0
9	6 June 1978	Monumental, Buenos Aires, Argentina	France	1–0	2–1	1978 FIFA World Cup
10	25 April 1979	Monumental, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Bulgaria	2–1	2–1	Friendly
11	26 May 1979	Olimpico, Rome, Italy	Italy	2–2	2–2	Friendly
12	8 August 1979	Monumental, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Bolivia	1–0	3–0	1979 Copa América
13	23 August 1979	Monumental, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Brazil	1–1	2–2	1979 Copa América
14	16 September 1979	Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Yugoslavia	1–3	2–4	Friendly
15	13 May 1980	Wembley, London, England	England	1–2	1–3	Friendly
16	12 October 1980	Monumental, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Poland	1–0	2–1	Friendly
17	16 December 1980	Olímpico Chateau Carreras, Córdoba, Argentina	Switzerland	5–0	5–0	Friendly
18	28 October 1981	Monumental, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Poland	1–0	1–2	Friendly
19	5 May 1982	José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Bulgaria	2–1	2–1	Friendly
20	23 June 1982	José Rico Pérez, Alicante, Spain	El Salvador	1–0	2–0	1982 FIFA World Cup
21	29 June 1982	Sarrià, Barcelona, Spain	Italy	1–2	1–2
22	26 May 1985	Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, San Cristóbal, Venezuela	Venezuela	2–1	3–2	1986 FIFA World Cup qualification

Honours

Player

River Plate

• Primera División (6): 1975 Metropolitano, 1975 Nacional, 1977 Metropolitano, 1979 Metropolitano, 1979 Nacional, 1980 Metropolitano, 1981 Nacional

Argentina

• FIFA World Cup: 1978, 1986

Individual

• Footballer of the Year of Argentina: 1976
• FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1978[17]
• FIFA 100: 2004[18]
• Golden Foot Legends Award: 2015[19]
• AFA Team of All Time (published 2015)[20]
• World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time[21]
• Fiorentina All-time XI[22]
• IFFHS All-time Men's B Dream Team: 2021[23]
• IFFHS South America Men's Team of All Time: 2021[24]

Manager

River Plate

• Primera División: 1989–90, Apertura 1991, Apertura 1993

Monterrey

• Mexican Primera División: Clausura 2003

Individual

• South American Coach of the Year: 1997

President

River Plate

• Primera B Nacional: 2011-2012

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daniel Passarella.

• Daniel Passarella – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Daniel Passarella at National-Football-Teams.com
• Daniel Passarella at Soccerbase
• Biography at Planetworldcup.com
• IFFHS Top Division Goal Scorers of all time among defensive players
• Comprehensive season stats at RSSSF
• Futbol Factory profile at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 October 2007) (in Spanish)
• Profile and Statistics at Futbolistasblogspotcom.blogspot.com (in Spanish)

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