Manuel Pellegrini

Born in Santiago, to Italian parents, Pellegrini attended the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, where he graduated in civil engineering in 1979. He started his formative years as a footballer in the youth divisions of Audax Italiano. Then he went to Club Universidad de Chile where he would play professionally for them as a defender. He spent his entire playing career with the club, making a total of 451 appearances and scoring seven goals in the Chilean Division 1, including one goal against Colo-Colo, Universidad de Chile's biggest rival. In the 1970s, Club Universidad de Chile was going through one of the most unsuccessful periods in its history, having not won the national Copa Chile championship since 1969. That changed in 1979, when the club managed to win the championship and secure a spot for the 1980 Copa Libertadores, defeating its arch-rival Colo-Colo in both tournaments. Pellegrini was capped once by the Chile national team, starting in a 1–1 friendly draw away to Brazil on 7 May 1986. He retired as a player a year later, in February 1987, after a match against Trasandino, with his reason for retiring being the following: "We were playing in the Copa Chile against Trasandino. Our goalkeeper parried the shot of a rival player, I jumped to clear the ball, and behind me came a 17-year-old boy who jumped half a metre above me, and scored. That day I decided I couldn't keep going". That boy was Iván Zamorano, on loan from Cobresal, who would…

Early years

As a coach, Pellegrini has primarily managed teams in Spain, Argentina and Chile. As in his career as a professional player, he also started off coaching Universidad de Chile during the 1988 season, but left the team at the middle of the season to take football coaching courses in Europe. The team's poor performance that year led to a relegation to the Division 2 for the first time in its history, though in 1989 they won the Division 2 championship, bringing them back to Division 1, where they have remained ever since. In 1990, Arturo Salah was appointed as the manager of the Chile national team, and he hired Pellegrini as his assistant coach and manager of the under-20 team. In 1990, Pellegrini was appointed manager of Palestino, where he stayed until 1992. Then, in 1992, he took on managership of O'Higgins for a year, before moving in 1993 to become coach of Universidad Católica, one of the most popular clubs in Chile. There he managed well-known players such as Alberto Acosta and Nestor Gorosito and took the team to victory in the prestigious Copa Interamericana in 1994 and the 1995 Copa Chile, though he could only finish as runner-up in 1994 and 1995 of the local Campeonato Nacional championship, a competition organized by the Chilean Football Federation in parallel to the Primera Division. In 1998, Pellegrini had a brief spell back at Palestino before he was bought by Ecuadorian club LDU Quito. He managed the club to a national title in 1999,…

Pellegrini has been roundly praised throughout his career for his attacking managerial style, calm demeanor and excellent man management. Such was Manchester City's ruthlessness in front of goal from all angles – intricate passing moves, crosses, solo-runs and set pieces – The Daily Telegraph likened City's style to "death by beautiful geometry".

His son, Manuel Pellegrini Pucci, is a traumatologist who works in the medical staff of Audax Italiano since 2022. As of 26 September 2022, he was under investigation by HMRC for tax evasion. The amount claimed by HMRC is £816,579.80.