Argentina mourns coaching legend Cesar Menotti

Argentine sports circles mourned the death of coaching legend Cesar Luis Menotti, the former coach of the Argentine national team, who led them to their first world title in 1978, at the age of 85, the Argentine Football Association announced.

Menotti led the Argentine national team between 1974 and 1983, and was the architect of the victory in the first World Cup title in 1978 at the expense of the Netherlands when he was 39 years old.

Menotti coached 11 teams during a career that spanned 37 years, some of them more than once, along with two national teams, Argentina and Mexico 1991-1992, but his leadership of his country to the 1978 World Cup title on home soil remains his most notable achievement ever.

One of the landmarks in the 1978 World Cup was Menotti’s decision not to call up Maradona, who was 17 years old, even though he had made his debut in his country’s colors a year earlier.