Carlos Bilardo

After retiring as a player, Bilardo became Estudiantes LP coach in 1971. Estudiantes got to the final of the 1971 Copa Libertadores, which it lost to Nacional. In 1976, he became manager of Colombia's Deportivo Cali and after a 2-year stint he managed to get the squad into the Copa Libertadores Finals but once again failed to win the title. After failing in the 1978 Copa Libertadores Finals, Bilardo had a short stint in San Lorenzo and then became Colombia national team's trainer. When the team failed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup, he was fired from his position, and Estudiantes arranged for his return to Argentina.

The club was enjoying healthy finances due to the transfer of Patricio Hernández, and accommodated Bilardo's request for reinforcements. The team made the semi-finals of the 1982 Nacional and went on to win the same year's Metropolitano title. Bilardo's scheme was based on Zubeldía's tactics, and its attacking might (fueled by players like Sabella, Trobbiani, Gottardi and Ponce) earned the attention of the media—and of the top brass of the Argentine Football Association, who offered him to manage the Argentina national team. He held the post from 1983 until after the 1990 World Cup. Under his watch, Diego Maradona became the most dominant player of his age, and Argentina enjoyed their best international harvest, winning the 1986 edition and reaching the 1990 final. Bilardo wrote a book called "Así Ganamos" ("How we won", Editorial Sudamericana Planeta)…

In 1965, Bilardo was transferred to Estudiantes de La Plata, where manager Osvaldo Zubeldía built a team based on the killer youth divisions (la tercera que mata) and thought of using Bilardo as a more mature anchor for the midfield. Bilardo became Estudiantes' inside-the-pitch tactician. Over a four-year span, the team won one Metropolitano title (1967), three Copa Libertadores titles (1968–1970, defeating Palmeiras, Nacional and Peñarol respectively at the finals) and one Intercontinental Cup in 1968 against Manchester United. After graduating as a physician (together with fellow player Raúl Horacio Madero), Bilardo retired from play and accepted the job of Estudiantes coach in 1971. For the next years, he divided his time between managing, his family (he married in 1968 and fathered a daughter), and helping manage his father's furniture business. He even found time to research rectal cancer and practice as a gynecologist (Bilardo finally retired from the practice of medicine in 1976, feeling that being a physician requires a full-time commitment that he was unable to provide).

Bilardo was born in the Buenos Aires La Paternal neighbourhood to italian immigrants from Mazzarino. He was drawn to football from his childhood, but did not neglect study or work. On school vacations, he would get up before dawn to haul produce to the Abasto market in Buenos Aires. Bilardo was a promising prospect in the youth divisions of major Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo de Almagro, and he was drafted to the junior Argentina national football team that obtained the 1959 Pan-American title and took part in the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome. In 1961, Bilardo was transferred to second-division side Deportivo Español, where he became the team's top scorer, but he slowly gravitated to the position of defensive midfielder. In parallel, he continued his studies in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires.

Player

San Lorenzo Primera División: 1959 Estudiantes (LP) Primera División: 1967 Metropolitano Copa Libertadores: 1968, 1969, 1970 Intercontinental Cup: 1968 Copa Interamericana: 1969 Argentina U23 Pan American Games Gold Medal: 1959 South American Pre-Olympic Tournament: 1960

Manager

Estudiantes (LP) Primera División: 1982 Metropolitano Deportivo Cali Categoría Primera A runner-up: 1977, 1978 Copa Libertadores runner-up: 1978 Argentina FIFA World Cup: 1986; runner-up: 1990 Copa América Third place: 1989 Individual

Guerin Sportivo Manager of the Year: 1986 South American Coach of the Year: 1986, 1987 Konex Award: 1990 World Soccer 29th Greatest Manager of All Time: 2013