Carlos Bilardo

Carlos Salvador Bilardo, born 16 March 1938 in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Paternal to Italian immigrants from Mazzarino, is an Argentine gynecologist, former football player, and manager. As a player with Estudiantes de La Plata in the 1960s, he gained international fame, and he later managed Argentina to victory in the 1986 FIFA World Cup and to the final in 1990. Fans and media know him as el narigón (“the big nosed one”).

From childhood, Bilardo balanced football with study and work; during school vacations, he hauled produce to the Abasto market before dawn. He rose through the youth ranks of San Lorenzo de Almagro and played for the junior Argentina national team that won the 1959 Pan-American title and competed in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Transferred to second-division Deportivo Español in 1961, he became the team’s top scorer before shifting to defensive midfielder, while continuing his medical studies at the University of Buenos Aires.

In 1965, Bilardo moved to Estudiantes de La Plata, where manager Osvaldo Zubeldía used him as a mature midfield anchor. He became the team’s on-field tactician. Over four years, Estudiantes won one Metropolitano title (1967), three consecutive Copa Libertadores titles (1968–1970, defeating Palmeiras, Nacional, and Peñarol), and the 1968 Intercontinental Cup against Manchester United. After graduating as a physician alongside teammate Raúl Horacio Madero, Bilardo retired from playing and became Estudiantes’ coach in 1971. He split his time between managing, his family (he married in 1968 and had a daughter), helping run his father’s furniture business, and researching rectal cancer while practicing as a gynecologist. He stopped practicing medicine in 1976, believing it required full-time commitment.

As manager, Bilardo led Estudiantes to the 1971 Copa Libertadores final, losing to Nacional. In 1976, he took over Colombia’s Deportivo Cali, reaching the Copa Libertadores finals twice but losing both. After a short stint at San Lorenzo, he became Colombia’s national team trainer but was fired when the team failed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup. Estudiantes then brought him back, and with reinforcements funded by a player transfer, the club reached the 1982 Nacional semi-finals and won that year’s Metropolitano title. His attacking system, built on Zubeldía’s tactics, caught the attention of the Argentine Football Association, which offered him the national team job.

Bilardo managed Argentina from 1983 through the 1990 World Cup. Under his guidance, Diego Maradona became the era’s most dominant player, and Argentina won the 1986 World Cup and reached the 1990 final. He wrote a book, Así Ganamos (“How We Won”), about the 1986 victory. Bilardo is renowned for successfully using the 3–5–2 formation at the highest level, a system that had existed for decades but never achieved mainstream status.

After 1990, Bilardo alternated between teaching, journalism, and managing. He reunited with Maradona at Sevilla FC and later Boca Juniors, and had brief stints coaching Libya and Guatemala in 1998. He returned to Estudiantes for the 2003–2004 season. During a game against River Plate, he sat by the pitch drinking from a champagne bottle; he claimed it contained Gatorade, and a forensic lab confirmed this. That season, results improved, and young players like José Ernesto Sosa were promoted. Three years later, under coach Diego Simeone, Estudiantes won the league, and in 2009 they won the Copa Libertadores again, with Bilardo attending the final and receiving his “lucky” beige coat from coach Sabella.

Bilardo covered the 2006 World Cup in Germany for Argentine TV station Canal 13. After manager José Pekerman resigned, Bilardo’s name was floated as a replacement, but the job went to Alfio Basile. Following the 2007 gubernatorial election, Bilardo was named Secretary of Sports of Buenos Aires province under governor Daniel Scioli. A new generation of coaches influenced by Bilardo has since taken key positions in Argentine football.