When it comes to Argentinean football anecdotes, there are not many people that are part of so many, like Carlos Salvador Bilardo.
Bilardo was Argentina’s National Manager from 1983 until after the World Cup in Italy 1990.
To his name as National Manager, he has a World Cup title in Mexico 86, and he was a losing finalist in Italy 90.
His teams have never played attractive football, in fact quite the opposite.
His tactics were always based in studying every rival tirelessly and with extreme precision, in order to do the minimum necessary to win the game.
No detail was left to luck. He, like many others in football, had countless lucky charms, and things that had to be done in a particular way not to break such charms.
If you have read my other anecdotes, you will find many Bilardo ones.
In this occasion, the year was 1989 and was the wedding of none other than Diego Armando Maradona.
The venue was a mythical Buenos Aires Indoor sports and concerts arena, called Luna Park.
At the Luna, as most people refer to it, many historic boxing matches had been fought, international singers and bands have played, and many other entertainments shows also.
But Diego, being Diego, hired the whole arena for his wedding to Claudia Villafane.
They had 1200 guests, and it was extremely lavish and full of top acts taking part.
Amongst those invited were many Argentinean footballers, some who played in the National team and some who did not, but more importantly the whole Napoli squad had been chartered via plane to attend as well together with some other top Italian Internationals.
Bilardo and Maradona were more than just Manager and Player to each other. They always had a love-hate relationship, and by this time they were at their best friends times.
Every player that was playing for the NT at that time was allocated to one of the tables, which included Bilardo too.
The Manager said to the players that he did not feel like dancing, but that he wanted his wife to enjoy the evening. For that every now and then, he would call a different player, and tell him to take his wife to the dance floor for a song. But he will also tell them where in the dance floor she liked dancing that particular piece of music.
Eventually 5 or 6 of the guys had a nice dnace with Bilardo’s wife and she thanked them and had a great evening.
It was odd to everyone that Carlos Bilardo had a notebook with him and was writing in it all night.
But people are kind of used to his tricks, so no one said or asked anything.
So the wedding goes by and at the next training session, Bilardo got his notebook out, and started shouting names for players to assume positions. Some were playing their own role, but some were playing as if they were a particular Italian player.
It turned out that what Bilardo did, was that everytime during the wedding that he had asked a player to take his wife for a dance, he was making then dance next to an Italian International who was also dancing, and he was measuring who was taller, and who would be good against who attacking and defending from free kicks and corners.
Bilardo was Argentina’s National Manager from 1983 until after the World Cup in Italy 1990.
To his name as National Manager, he has a World Cup title in Mexico 86, and he was a losing finalist in Italy 90.
His teams have never played attractive football, in fact quite the opposite.
His tactics were always based in studying every rival tirelessly and with extreme precision, in order to do the minimum necessary to win the game.
No detail was left to luck. He, like many others in football, had countless lucky charms, and things that had to be done in a particular way not to break such charms.
If you have read my other anecdotes, you will find many Bilardo ones.
In this occasion, the year was 1989 and was the wedding of none other than Diego Armando Maradona.
The venue was a mythical Buenos Aires Indoor sports and concerts arena, called Luna Park.
At the Luna, as most people refer to it, many historic boxing matches had been fought, international singers and bands have played, and many other entertainments shows also.
But Diego, being Diego, hired the whole arena for his wedding to Claudia Villafane.
They had 1200 guests, and it was extremely lavish and full of top acts taking part.
Amongst those invited were many Argentinean footballers, some who played in the National team and some who did not, but more importantly the whole Napoli squad had been chartered via plane to attend as well together with some other top Italian Internationals.
Bilardo and Maradona were more than just Manager and Player to each other. They always had a love-hate relationship, and by this time they were at their best friends times.
Every player that was playing for the NT at that time was allocated to one of the tables, which included Bilardo too.
The Manager said to the players that he did not feel like dancing, but that he wanted his wife to enjoy the evening. For that every now and then, he would call a different player, and tell him to take his wife to the dance floor for a song. But he will also tell them where in the dance floor she liked dancing that particular piece of music.
Eventually 5 or 6 of the guys had a nice dnace with Bilardo’s wife and she thanked them and had a great evening.
It was odd to everyone that Carlos Bilardo had a notebook with him and was writing in it all night.
But people are kind of used to his tricks, so no one said or asked anything.
So the wedding goes by and at the next training session, Bilardo got his notebook out, and started shouting names for players to assume positions. Some were playing their own role, but some were playing as if they were a particular Italian player.
It turned out that what Bilardo did, was that everytime during the wedding that he had asked a player to take his wife for a dance, he was making then dance next to an Italian International who was also dancing, and he was measuring who was taller, and who would be good against who attacking and defending from free kicks and corners.