Osvaldo Ardiles

Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles,[2] is a football manager, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as part of the Argentine national team. He now runs his own football school in the UK called the Ossie Ardiles Soccer School.

Osvaldo Ardiles
Ardiles 1981 in Tottenham
Personal information
Full name Osvaldo César Ardiles[1]
Date of birth (1952-08-03) 3 August 1952[1]
Place of birth Córdoba, Argentina
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1]
Position(s) Central midfielder
Youth career
Instituto de Córdoba
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1973 Instituto de Córdoba 14 (3)
1974 Belgrano 16 (2)
1975–1978 Huracán 113 (11)
1978–1988 Tottenham Hotspur 221 (16)
1982–1983Paris Saint-Germain (loan) 14 (1)
1985St George Saints (loan) 1 (0)
1988 Blackburn Rovers 5 (0)
1988–1989 Queens Park Rangers 8 (0)
1989 Ft. Lauderdale Strikers 5 (1)
1989–1991 Swindon Town 2 (0)
Total 376 (32)
National team
1975–1982 Argentina 52 (8)
Teams managed
1989–1991 Swindon Town
1991–1992 Newcastle United
1992–1993 West Bromwich Albion
1993–1994 Tottenham Hotspur
1995 Guadalajara
1996–1998 Shimizu S-Pulse
1999 Croatia Zagreb
2000–2001 Yokohama F. Marinos
2001 Al-Ittihad SC Aleppo
2002–2003 Racing Club
2003–2005 Tokyo Verdy
2006 Beitar Jerusalem
2007 Huracán
2008 Cerro Porteño
2012 FC Machida Zelvia
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

A competitive and skilled midfielder, Ardiles became a cult hero in England, along with Glenn Hoddle and compatriot Ricardo Villa, as a player for Tottenham Hotspur. He left England for a period on loan as a result of the outbreak of the Falklands War in 1982, thus missing most of the 1982–83 English season.

After retirement, Ardiles began his management career in England, coaching Swindon Town, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion, before returning to Tottenham to become the first Premier League manager from Argentina.[3] As manager of Spurs in the mid-1990s, he played several matches utilizing a formation that had five forwards, a formation that hadn't been used in English football since the 1950s. During his career, Ardiles has also coached in Mexico, Croatia, Japan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Paraguay and his native Argentina.

In Ireland, he is a pundit for RTÉ Sport.[4]

Club career

Ardiles was born in Córdoba,[1] and played for Instituto de Córdoba from a young age.[5] As a youngster, Ardiles played football in the streets and was given the nickname Pitón (python) by his brother because of his snake-like dribbling skills.[6] He was named as El Gráfico's best player of the interior in 1974, and abandoned his law degree studies in order to play professional football.[7]

He also played for Club Atlético Belgrano and Huracán. After the 1978 World Cup he moved to England to play for Tottenham where he spent ten seasons.

He helped Tottenham win the FA Cup in his third season there (1980–81), and collaborated with pop duo Chas & Dave as well as the rest of the Tottenham players for a song, "Ossie's Dream". He played a big part in another FA Cup triumph the following year, but did not play in the final because it had already been arranged with the Spurs management that he would leave early to join up with Argentina's 1982 World Cup squad. At that tournament he wore the number 1 shirt, as Argentina's policy at the time was to number their players alphabetically by surname, with an exception made so Diego Maradona could wear his preferred number 10.[8]

In the wake of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina it became difficult for him to return to White Hart Lane and he went on loan to Paris Saint-Germain in France. After just one season in Paris, he returned to Tottenham, helping the club to win the UEFA Cup in 1984 (coming on as a substitute in the second leg of the final). In the autumn of 1987, he was caretaker coach under caretaker manager Doug Livermore of Tottenham between the resignation of David Pleat and the appointment of Terry Venables.[9] Ardiles left Spurs in 1988. He then played for Blackburn Rovers, Queens Park Rangers and Swindon Town, before being appointed as manager of Swindon Town in July 1989. He played part of the 1989 American Soccer League season with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

On 7 February 2008, Ardiles, along with his fellow countryman Ricardo Villa, was inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame.[10]

International career

Ardiles was called up to the Argentina senior team by manager César Luis Menotti in 1975. He was a member of the World Cup winning squad in 1978.[11]

Management career

Ardiles 2006

In July 1989, Ardiles moved into football management with second division Swindon Town when Lou Macari resigned to join West Ham in July 1989. He wowed fans by replacing the long ball style which had been so successful with a new "Samba style", which saw the Town playing attacking football. Part of this change was the new "diamond formation" which Ardiles implemented: a 4–4–2 style with left-sided, right-sided, attacking and defensive midfielders.

Ten months after he had joined, Ardiles led Swindon to their highest ever league position, finishing fourth in the second division. After beating Blackburn in the first leg of the play-off semi-final, the fans paid tribute with a tickertape reception in the second leg. Swindon went on to win promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history—beating Sunderland in the Play-Off Final—only to have the promotion taken from them ten days later, when the Football League demoted them for irregular payments to players.

The following season, Ardiles was told to sell players to keep the club alive and Wembley hero Alan McLoughlin was the first big-money departure. With Swindon rocked by their pre-season troubles, their form deserted them. By the end of February, relegation threatened, and when Newcastle offered Ardiles the chance to become their new boss, he accepted, becoming the club's first foreign manager. But his time on Tyneside was not a success and he lasted 12 months in the job before being sacked, with the Magpies bottom of the second division, though they achieved safety under his successor Kevin Keegan.

In June 1992 Ardiles replaced Bobby Gould as manager of West Bromwich Albion, who had just missed out on the third division playoffs in 1991–92. At the end of the 1992–93 season, Ardiles guided Albion to victory over Port Vale in the Division Two playoff final. Shortly afterwards he walked out of the Hawthorns to return his former club Tottenham as manager, but his management spell was nowhere near as successful as his spell as a player. Tottenham finished 15th in the Premiership and despite the expensive acquisition of Jürgen Klinsmann, Ilie Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Popescu in the 1994 close season, Ardiles was sacked in October 1994 with Tottenham languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League. They had just been punished for financial irregularities committed during the late 1980s: with a 1-year FA Cup ban, £600,000 fine and 12 league points deducted. The punishment was later amended to a £1.5million fine and six points deducted but the FA Cup ban and points deduction were later quashed.

Ardiles became coach of J. League Division 1 side Yokohama F. Marinos in January 2000, but was sacked in June 2001 following a poor start to the season.[12] From 2003 to 2005 he coached Tokyo Verdy, with whom he won the 2004 Emperor's Cup, In July 2005 Ardiles was fired after a nine-game winless streak.[13] In mid-2006 he moved to Israel to coach Beitar Jerusalem, from which he quit after only a few months in charge on 18 October 2006 due to severe differences of opinion with the club's board of directors. After a small break he was appointed Club Atlético Huracán manager in his native Argentina in September 2007, he steered the club to 7th in the table before resigning at the end of the Apertura 2007.

He joined Paraguayan club Cerro Porteño in May 2008[14] but was sacked in August of the same year after a string of poor results and was replaced by Pedro Troglio.[15]

Media career

Ardiles was enlisted by RTÉ Sport for their squad of pundits ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.[16][17][18] He returned to RTÉ's team for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.[19]

Ardiles played Carlos Rey in the 1981 World War II film Escape to Victory.

Personal life

He married Silvia Navarro in December 1973.[20]

In January 2014, Ardiles and Ricardo Villa were involved in a car crash in the Falkland Islands during the filming of Camilo Antolini's 30 for 30 documentary White, Blue and White.[21] Ardiles sustained minor injuries in the accident, and required more than 20 stitches in his head.[22]

Career statistics

Club

[23]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
Argentina League Cup League Cup South America Total
1973InstitutoPrimera División143
1974BelgranoPrimera División162
1975HuracánPrimera División
1976
1977
1978
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1978–79Tottenham HotspurFirst Division383
1979–80403
1980–81365
1981–82262
1982–8320
France League Coupe de France Coupe de la Ligue Europe Total
1982–83Paris Saint-GermainDivision 11413
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1983–84Tottenham HotspurFirst Division90
1984–85112
1985–86231
1986–87250
1987–88280
1987–88Blackburn RoversSecond Division50
1988–89Queens Park RangersFirst Division80
1989–90Swindon TownSecond Division20
1990–9100
CountryArgentina 14316
England 25316
France 141
Total 41033

International

Argentina national team
YearAppsGoals
197584
1976101
1977110
1978112
197920
198000
198120
198281
Total528

Managerial statistics

[24]

Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Shimizu S-Pulse 1996 1998 96 56 0 40 058.33
Yokohama F. Marinos 2000 2001 40 21 2 17 052.50
Tokyo Verdy 2003 2005 67 22 20 25 032.84
FC Machida Zelvia 2012 2012 42 7 11 24 016.67
Total 245 106 33 106 043.27

Honours

Player

Tottenham Hotspur

Argentina

Individual

Manager

Swindon Town

West Bromwich Albion

Shimizu S-Pulse

  • Nabisco Cup: 1996

Yokohama F. Marinos

Tokyo Verdy

Individual

References

Specific
  1. "Ardiles: Osvaldo César Ardiles: Manager". BDFutbol. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  2. Bandini, Paolo (13 February 2009). "Ossie Ardiles". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  3. "The rise and fall of British or Irish managers in the Premier League". Eurosport. 5 October 2015.
  4. "Ardiles joins Bill and the Boys". The Irish Times. 1 June 2010. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  5. Ardiles 2009, p. 8
  6. Allen, Matt (April 2008). "Ossie Ardiles". FourFourTwo; One-on-One. Haymarket Group. pp. 12–16.
  7. Ardiles 2009, p. 13
  8. Martina Mazzaro (13 August 2017). "L'88 di Buffon, il "44Gatti" e l'1 di Ardiles: storia dei numeri pazzi". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  9. Note: Ardiles asserts in his autobiography that he was caretaker manager between Pleat and Venables. This is incorrect. See List of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. managers and references there.
  10. "Hall of Fame". Tottenhamhotspur.com. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  11. Ardiles 2009, p. 6
  12. "Ardiles axed as Yokohama coach". BBC Sport. 2 June 2001. Retrieved 19 January 2008.
  13. "Ardiles sacked by Japanese side". BBC Sport. 19 July 2005. Retrieved 19 January 2008.
  14. Osvaldo Ardiles will lead to Cerro Porteño Archived 3 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  15. "Cerro Porteno Fire Ossie Ardiles | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  16. "Ardiles and Hamann join RTÉ for World Cup". RTÉ Sport. 1 June 2010. Archived from the original on 4 June 2010. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  17. Black, Fergus (2 June 2010). "RTÉ hopes Ossie and squad will spur fans to back home team". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  18. O'Malley, Carl (2 June 2010). "RTÉ roll out big guns for their 56 live games". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  19. "Friedel, Ardiles & Lennon join RTÉ for World Cup". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 5 June 2014. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2014. Joining them will be former German international Didi Hamann, Argentine World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles, former Celtic manager Neil Lennon, ex-USA international Brad Friedel and Real Madrid coach Paul Clement.
  20. Ardiles 2009, p. 12
  21. "Ardiles and Villa unhurt after Falklands crash - ESPN.co.uk". ESPN UK. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  22. "Ossie Ardiles involved in car accident in Falkland Islands". BBC Sport. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  23. "Osvaldo Ardiles". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman.
  24. J.League Data Site(in Japanese)
  25. "1981/82 Charity Shield". footballsite.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  26. "Golden Foot – Osvaldo Ardiles". Goldenfoot.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
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